Tema-Ghana, Dec. 11, – Justice Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu, the Director of the Judicial Training Institute of Ghana, has cautioned against choosing attacks on journalists as an option to address their misgivings.
Justice Amadu, who is also a Supreme Court Judge of Ghana, said cautionary attacks and threats on journalists and the media were never an option and must therefore not be encouraged to rear their ugly heads or prevail in the country.
He gave the caution during a three-day training workshop for 30 judges from Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone on ‘Freedom of expression, artificial intelligence, and the rule of law’ organised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
He urged all persons who were affected by bad journalism to seek redress through the appropriate state organs and the formal court system.
He said regrettably, attacks on journalists have been on the rise in contemporary times, with Ghana dropping from the 60th to the 62nd position on the 2023 Annual Global Press Freedom Assessment.
Justice Amadu noted that Ghana’s 1992 Constitution has done the needful by not only guaranteeing the freedom of expression of the media but also by having the state institutionalise a framework through the National Media Commission to consolidate and ventilate these rights for the media to safeguard infringements and impunities.
He stated, however, that while the media continue to play such a pivotal role in national growth and development, the growing practice of yellow journalism continues to frustrate this progress.
“I have observed very distasteful, inciteful, hateful, and defamatory commentary and reportage churned out by some journalists or media houses targeted at private individuals, public persons, and the institutions they head,” he stated.
The Supreme Court Judge added that all these incidents make a sad story of the risks and dangers Ghanaians were subjecting their beloved democracy to.
Mr. Edmond Moukala, the Director of UNESCO, Accra Office, said the right to free expression was a human right and basic freedom enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adding that it allows all other basic rights to be freely exercised and protected.
Mr. Moukala said many instances throughout history have shown that when freedom of expression starts to collapse, other freedoms could suffer the same fate, an indication that the issue of freedom of expression and the safety of journalists was a very delicate area that demanded the attention of duty bearers, arbitration authorities, and the security services.
According to him, judicial systems worldwide are confronted with a constantly changing communications environment as they must navigate between intersecting rights to privacy and the right to access information, as well as assess new challenges, like the application of standards that were originally for an off-line environment.
Judges, he noted, play an essential role in ensuring a safe environment for journalists by bringing perpetrators of attacks to justice and by guaranteeing that international law is respected in national decisions involving freedom of expression and the safety of journalists.
He said that in line with UNESCO’s global mandate to protect “the free flow of ideas by word and image,” UNESCO acts worldwide to advance these fundamental freedoms; therefore, it was critical to build capacities among members of the judiciary to prevent indiscriminate actions against freedom of expression.
He stated that to this end, UNESCO has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with regional courts to strengthen the protection of freedom of expression, press freedom, and the safety of journalists in Africa.
