By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The Ghana Journalists Association, GJA, has strongly condemned a television presenter of a Kumasi-based private station, Oheneba Asiedu for disinformation regarding the date for the December 7 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
According to the GJA, the presenter’s utterances on the matter were reckless and unprofessional.
However, it has chastised the Ghana Police Service for arresting the presenter arguing that no speech should be criminalized and is therefore calling for a repeal of Section 208 of the Criminal and Other Offences law to give true meaning to the repeal of the Criminal Libel law.
The General Secretary of the GJA, Edmund Kofi Yeboah, made the call at Fumesua in the Ejisu Municipality of the Ashanti region during a training programme for selected media practitioners.
The one-day training programme was the first in a two-series capacity-building exercise, organized by the GJA with the support of the Electoral Commission for selected journalists with a focus on Credible Election Reporting of the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary polls.
It was the first of a two-series training to build the professional competences of the participants towards a credible reportage on the elections next month.
Forty journalists from the Ashanti, Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Northern, North East, Upper West and Upper East regions, constituting the Northern zone, benefitted from the training.
They were taken through the Safety and Security of the Journalist, EC’s expectations of the media in Election 2024, as well as Fact-Checking; A necessity for the media in Election 2024.
The General Secretary of the GJA, Edmund Kofi Yeboah, condemned strongly recent utterances by a presenter on a Kumasi based television station that sought to deceive the station’s viewers that next month’s presidential and parliamentary elections would be held on different days for different presidential candidates based on their positions on the ballot paper.
Such utterances which has received a wide condemnation as a classical case of disinformation and falsehood being perpetrated by the media.
The GJA General Secretary chastised also the Police for arresting the presenter and wondered why the Police appear to apply Section 208 of the Criminal and Other Offences law against only media practitioners and called for its repeal.
“There should be no way we should criminalize speech. And we’ve had issues with the Police using that provision of the Criminal and Other Offences Act of 1960, Section 208. There’re ways we can address it. The National Media Commission is there. It’s the regulator of the industry. If we don’t check some of these things, and it’s obvious the Police have been abusing that law without…..without contradicting myself, we condemn Oheneba Nana Asiedu but we don’t appreciate the Police using Section 208 to criminalize speech”, Mr. Kofi Yeboah emphasized.
He hinted that, the GJA in collaboration with PRINPAG and GIBA to mount a strong crusade for the repeal of Section 208 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act and others to give true meaning to the repeal of the criminal libel law adding that, there is no justification to criminalize speech in any form.
The Organizing Secretary of the GJA, Dominic Hlordzi, reminded journalists to take responsibility for their personal safety and security and prepare themselves physically and psychologically before and during they cover the elections.
“Someone would be at the Polling Station thinking that you station had done something or your station had reported something negative against them and would want to attack you”, he advised.
The Ashanti Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, Francis Osei Nsiah, said his outfit is ready for the December 7 elections but expects the media to be at their professional best in their reportage on the processes avoiding tendencies that could undermine the credibility of the exercise.
