Accra, Jan.6, - The "Free Press newspaper" Friday rendered an unqualified apology to the First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, for the inconvenience caused her through a story headlined ''No Tears For Konadu''. The apology carried on the front page of the day's issue, said: "there was no deliberate intention to downgrade or impair the dignity of the First Lady".
''This is because we suggested that Nana Konadu should be provided with adequate security whenever she was travelling abroad". The paper said the publication was meant to draw the First Lady's attention to the sort of ordeal that "most of our women go through when travelling abroad. "In spite of our harmless intentions, the story turned out to be offensive to the dignity of Ghanaian womanhood and to the dignity of the First Lady in particular". " We are by this publication, therefore, retracting the contents of the publication and do hereby render our unqualified apology to Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings for the inconvenience the publication may have caused her."
The Ministry of Communications had earlier in a press release protested against the story which it described as ''demeaning and insulting to the personal integrity of the First Lady''. The Ministry asked the Media Commission and the Ghana Journalists Association to use it as a test case to discipline the journalist involved. In a related development, the National Council on Women and Development (NCWD) and the 31st December Women's Movement today went on a demonstration in a convoy of vehicles to protest against the Free Press story.
The demonstrators, led by a member of the Council of State, Dr. (Mrs.) Mary Grant and Mrs Sherry Ayitey, finance co-ordinator of the movement, presented a petition to the Media Commission, which was received by Mr. S.S. Nee-Okpey, deputy executive secretary of the commission. Speaking before the presentation, Dr. Grant said the story sought to cast aspersions on the First Lady and insinuations on the uprightness of Ghanaian womanhood. She advised the commission to take positive steps to check the excesses in the practice of journalism in the country.
The women carried placards, some of which read "Tommy Thompson, hater of Women", and "Nana Konadu Women's Role Model.", They later presented a similar petition to Parliament.
Free Press
