Yellow journalists are murderers – Presby Moderator

The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Prof. Emmanuel Martey, has likened “unprofessional Journalists” to “murderers”.

He says: “Any Journalist that assassinates the character of any citizen is no different from the murderer who takes weapons and assassinates fellow human beings”.

According to him, “we are all aware that in Ghana, there are journalists in media houses who engage in yellow journalism,” adding that, this type of Journalists do not do well-researched reporting and use “exaggerations, scandal-mongering and sensationalism techniques to cover up their unprofessional conduct”.

The say-it-as-it-is Moderator pulled no punches in his criticism of unprofessional journalists when he spoke at the Osu Presbyterian Church on Sunday, to mark the 31st anniversary of the extra-judicial killing of three High Court Judges and a retired army officer by the Rawlings-led Provincial National Defence Council military junta on June 30, 1982.

He said: “We need well educated journalists with analytical minds such as Kweku Baako Jr and with investigative minds like Anas Aremeyaw Anas, both of whom, interestingly, happen to be students of law”.

Prof. Martey, therefore, said he wished all journalists before practicing, “will first read law and know the meaning of the rule of law and how to sustain it”.

The anniversary ceremony of the murder of Justices Fred Poku Sarkodee, Cecilia Koranteng-Addow and Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong, is organised by the Ghana Bar Association and the Judiciary and remembered as ‘Martyrs Day’ every year.

That fateful day, 31 years ago, has been described by historians as one of the darkest and bloodiest moments in Ghana’s political history.