Security brutality against Ghanaian journalists worrying - MFWA

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) says it has noticed with concern the increasing acts of violations perpetrated against journalists in their line of duty by security personnel.

It says, “even before the end of the first quarter of 2014, the MFWA’s Freedom of Expression and safety of journalists monitoring shows that four cases of press freedom violations have been committed by some members of the security agencies.”

The foundation says: “On April 11, 2014, Ebenezer Kwame Abaka, a Western Regional Correspondent of TV3, a privately-owned television station, was heckled by a military man and his camera seized at an event he was invited to.”

The journalist had gone to cover a graduation parade of some recruits of the Ghana Air Force at the Air Force Base of the Western Regional Capital, Takoradi.

“While filming the event, a military man approached the journalist and asked him to produce his identity card. When he failed to produce it, the military man heckled him and took his camera from him. Even though Abaka was able to retrieve his camera shortly after that, he had to leave the event due to the embarrassment he suffered,” the MFWA said in a press release.

According to the statement, another journalist, Muftaw Mohammed, of privately-owned Metro FM, a radio station in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi, was on April 3 arrested and detained for taking pictures of some bribe-taking personnel from the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of Ghana Police Service. “Mohammed was held by the police and his iPad seized.”

After two hours, the pictures he had taken of the MTTD officers on his iPad were deleted before he was released.

Earlier on March 10, Geoffrey Buta, a photographer of the state-owned newspaper The Ghanaian Times was also, assaulted by a military man in Tamale, in the Northern Region of Ghana.

Again a crew of privately-owned TV Africa was on March 7, detained by some security personnel at Adjei Kojo, a suburb of Accra. The crew had gone to the area to do a follow-up on a demolition exercise that was undertaken in the area.

The MFWA said it is concerned about the seeming lack of tolerance on the part of some sections of the security agencies in Ghana towards journalists when they are discharging their professional duties.

“We call on the security agencies to recognise the important role the media plays in the democratic development of the country and accord them the necessary support and respect they deserve.”