Kenneth Ashigbey
Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunication, says Ghana is not doing well to prevent assault on journalists.
He said many reported cases of assault on journalists to the police had been left uninvestigated.
Mr Ashigbey said this at the Maiden Ahmed Hussein-Suale Memorial Lecture, organised by the United Press for Development Network in Accra. The lecture was part of activities to mark the World Press Freedom Day, scheduled for May 3, 2019, to be hosted by Ethiopia.
It was attended by media personnel, stakeholders in the media, students and family members of the slain journalist.
The theme for this year’s World Press Freedom Day is: “Media for Democracy: Journalists and Elections in terms of Disinformation.”
The local theme is “Media for Democracy: Ghana's Rights to Information Law, Catalyst for Change”.
Mr Ashigbey said journalists, themselves, did not take their own issues seriously, adding that, “Journalists promote the activities of other institutions and individuals but left their own cases to rot.”
He said this stemmed from the lack of unity among media houses and journalists, lack of appetite to seeking justice at law courts for journalists, lack of safety training and poor treatment of journalists by media houses.
He said many journalists, in an attempt to seek justice after suffering in the hands of individuals and institutions, mostly had those cases negotiated for out of court settlements.
This, Mr Ashigbey said, was not right and that cases of that nature must be left to go through the remits of the law.
He, however, suggested to the Ghana Journalists Association to set-up a complaint desk at all the regional offices, publish all assault cases on journalists and track the monthly progress and online system of reporting, among other things.
Mr Mustapha Iddrisu, the Spokesperson for Hussein-Suale’s Family, said the Family had been in constant touch with the Police Criminal Investigation Department to arrest and bring the perpetrators to book.
Mr Hussein-Suale, on January 11, 2019, was shot by unknown assailants at Madina, in Accra, on his way home.
