By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
Four men on motorbikes captured by Class Media Group’s Labone headquarters CCTV cameras suspected to be arsonists have petrol bombed the building housing Class TV/FM.
Pictures from the CCTV footage showed that the arsonists attacked the media house building in Accra with petrol bombs and stones.
The incident is said to have occurred on Thursday, April 25, 2024, at dawn around 2 a.m. They hurled the petrol bombs over the fence wall into the media house, destroying the glass wall and door of the reception, and fled the scene right after launching the attack.
It is not clear why the suspects attacked the company, but CMG has reported the incident to the police for an investigation.
Some Ghanaian media houses and journalists have come under all forms of attack and murder in the past few years.
For instance, an investigative journalist, Mr Ahmed Suale, who worked with Anas Aremeyaa Anas’ Tiger Eye P.I., was shot several times and killed in broad daylight by unknown gunmen.
In other instances, thugs invaded the studios of radio and TV stations to either manhandle a presenter or interrupt live shows.
Last year, for example, Mr Iddrisu Hardi Pagazaa, a former deputy northern regional communications officer of the main opposition NDC, and one other person were reported to the police for storming into the studios of one of CMG’s media houses, Dagbon FM, in the Northern Region, on Wednesday, May 3, 2023, which coincidentally was World Press Freedom Day, to attack and assault a journalist.
The victim, Abubakar Saddique Gariba, hosts an evening political talk show on Dagbon 102.5 FM.
The live on-air attack happened between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m..
Also, on February 10, 2022, the host of Accra FM’s ‘Citizen Show’, Kwabena Bobie Ansah, was accosted and arrested by unidentified men who claimed to be security operatives.
The reason for his arrest, right after his political talk show, was not known.
He was taken to the Nima Police Station and later transferred to the striking force. His arrest followed that of Captain Smart of Onua TV, who was detained for some utterances he had made on TV, as well as Power FM’s Oheneba Boamah Bennie, who served a two-week jail term and got fined for GHS3,000 for contempt of court in a case in which he allegedly made false claims against President Akufo-Addo and the justices of the Supreme Court about the 2020 election petition.
