The Ghanaian diaspora media in the US, have urged the government to check acts of impunity creeping back into the society before the wrong signals are sent to the international community that, Ghana was back to the old ways.
The media was responding to acts of brutalities meted out to journalists while performing their legitimate duties at the BA@50 Awards Ceremony held in Sunyani last Saturday. The media condemned the assault on the journalists and expressed solidarity with the measures taken by the regional and national associations of the Ghana Journalists Association to seek redress.
In an exclusive interview with Mr Samuel Kissiedu by this freelance Journalist lastTuesday, a former reporter with the Graphic Communications Group, he said the international media were not happy with the turn of events at the function adding that, there were foreigne visitors at the function who have expressed concern about the violent turn of events.
Mr Kissiedu who is a member of the International Committee of Concerned Journalists, said it was unfortunate that the incident happened before very high profile personalities in society who were unable to ensure sanity.
"The perpetrators of the violence disgraced not only their leaders but Ghana as whole.If they had any grievances against the journalists, they could have lodged a protest at the National Media Commission and not expose their leaders to ridicle. Anyway, the world is watching the reaction of the leaders to this barbarism", he stated.
Mr Kwame Antwi Barimah, formerly of the GBC, said it was shocking that these events are happening in the 21st century.He called for doalogue between the parties to iron out their differences and prayed that the unfortunate situation would not happen again.
On his part, Mr Harry Boateng, formerly of the Ghanaian Times said parliament must pass laws to protect journalists.He said the GJA must also ensure that journalists are insured to enable them discharge the risky job .
