Ladies and gentlemen of the media. We are indeed grateful for your prompt response to our invitation to this afternoon’s news conference which has been called to react to developments on the arrest, detention and alleged torture of the two Modern Ghana journalists, Emmanuel Ajafor Abugri and Britwum.
News of their arrest reached us on Friday, 28th June, 2019. I in particular placed an urgent call to the Minister of National Security, Hon Kan Dapaah followed by a whatsapp message to confirm or deny the disturbing news. In the midst of the funeral of Major General Francis Vibe Sanziri, Hon Dapaah called back and explained the circumstances under which the two journalists were arrested. It is worthy to note that the Minister has been incredibly cooperative and supportive in this matter. He indicated where the journalists were being kept followed by assurances of their release. Based on the information we gathered from National Security, GJA Secretariat, the media and other sources we granted a series of interviews on the issue. We were admittedly extra cautious but highly meticulous in gathering further information on the issue, more so when it borders on a grave human rights violation of torture. We have also been in touch with our local and international partners, notably International Federation of Journalists and the Committee for the Protection of Journalists. GJA has been slow in organizing a press conference and skittish in hitting National Security it was because we did not want to exemplify any dichotomy over principle in use and principle espoused relative to Article 4 of the GJA Code of Ethics which states that “a journalist makes adequate enquiries and cross checks his or her facts”. We also did not want to offend Article 5 of the same Code which says a “journalist makes and verifies the source of every information”.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media. A key source of information has been the victims of the alleged torture and human rights violations and our lawyer, Samson Ayenini whose inestimable sacrifice and distinctive service has proved incalculably useful to the two journalists. When the journalists badly needed legal service and had none, Samson was there. To say the least, the GJA is shocked to the marrow to hear the magnitude of the alleged torture of the two journalists. On the grounds of democratic principles, freedom and independence of the media and the tradition of defending the rights of journalists, the GJA unequivocally condemns the processes and procedures adopted in seeking justice over the cybercrime allegedly committed by the journalists. The GJA has a constitutional, legal, ethical, moral and godly responsibility to rally to the defense of all journalists in their line of duty. We shall never flinch from doing so under any circumstance.
The GJA is indeed overly worried and concerned about the attacks of scandalous frequency on journalists. Such attacks corrode our international image and dims the beacon of our democracy. We are calling for an independent investigation into the case to ascertain the truth. We are calling for an independent investigation into the case for us to ascertain the truth. Our simple request to the government is this: please work and be seen to be working on restoring confidence that the Ghanaian media environment is safe and a reference point for the rest of the World. It is also appropriate to admonish our colleague journalists to be ethically responsible and security conscious in order not to fall easy prey to the enemies of press freedom.
God bless you us all.
