IMANI President Reveals Ghana Will Keep Performing Badly In Press Freedom Ranking Until Ahmed Suale’s Killers Are Arrested
The masterminds, agitators, and assassins of investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale, who was with the Tiger Eye team, are still roaming free, according to Mr. Franklin Cudjoe, the founding president of Imani Africa.
Unidentified men on motorcycles shot Hussein-Suale three times, twice in the chest and once in the neck, in his vehicle on Wednesday, January 16, 2019.
Mr. Cudjoe said until this and other murders are resolved, “our free press ranking will be bad.”
His remarks come in the wake of Ghana’s dismal result in the recent Press Freedom Index.
It hurts gravely that the masterminds, agitators and assassins of Ahmed Suale are still lurking about freely. Until this and other murders are resolved, our free press ranking will be bad.
— Franklin CUDJOE (@lordcudjoe) May 3, 2022
Ghana has fared poorly in press freedom rankings, falling 30 places from 2021 to 60th position with a score of 67.43 on the World Press Freedom Index 2022.
According to the research, the government’s intolerance forced journalists to engage in extensive self-censorship in the course of their employment.
“Although the country is considered a regional leader in democratic stability, journalists have experienced growing pressures in recent years. To protect their jobs and their security, they increasingly resort to self-censorship, as the government shows itself intolerant of criticism,” the World Press Freedom indicated in its latest ranking released May 3,2022.
It added: “The 2019 information access law authorizes journalists to demand information of national interest. However, a clause in the law allows a fee to be charged if the information requested is in a language other than English – a provision used to deny journalists’ access to the information they seek.”
“In addition, one third of media outlets are owned by politicians or by people tied to the top political parties. The content they produce is largely partisan. In Ghana, most media outlets face financial problems, reflected in low salaries and poor working conditions for journalists. Frequently, new newspapers are launched only to fold in a few months, due to inability to meet production costs. State-owned media, for their part, benefit from government advertising contracts and payment for publishing news items. Government advertising is awarded through a non-transparent and inequitable process”.
