Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide, Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako Jnr.
Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has expressed bitter resentment over the arrest of a Journalist accused of defaming Ghanaian businessman Daniel McKorley, popularly called 'McDan'.
The Journalist, Noah Dameh, has been remanded into Police custody for two weeks after he appeared before the Magistrate Court in Tema.
The case began in May 2022 when Dameh was summoned and detained by the Police following a complaint by Daniel McKorley (alias McDan) - the founder of Electrochem Ghana, a salt factory at Ada Songor.
"The complaint was in connection with the Journalist’s Facebook post in which he accused the Police of abusing a young man from Ada at the instance of McKorley," a publication by the Media Foundation for West Africa read.
To Kweku Baako, it is absolutely unwarranted for the Journalist to be on remand.
"Remand for two weeks for what? Will he run away? Is he flight-risk? Seize his passport and tell him to report to the Police maybe every two days even though my principled position is that it is totally uncalled-for. It doesn't make sense and these things have implications. It has repercussions; collateral dimensions which people can use or misuse," he snapped while speaking on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" morning programme.
Meanwhile, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has appealed to the Attorney General to intervene in the Journalist's situation.
"The MFWA is intrigued by the evolution of this case from a defamation complaint, which should have been a civil matter, to criminal prosecution for alleged false publication. We are also intrigued by the Police’s apparent lack of interest in pursuing those who allegedly perpetrated the gross human rights violation of chaining a patient to a hospital bed, as opposed to the cast-iron determination to prosecute the whistleblower. In view of this, we call on the Attorney General to intervene to ensure that the Journalist is not made a scape goat and that justice is served for all persons involved in this matter."
