The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has followed with worrying concern the assault of JoyNews’ reporter, Carlos Calony and his cameraman, Jonas Dodzi Voegborlo, by the National Security operatives.
Carlos Calony was also arrested and detained at the National Security Head Office in Accra. The security operatives also assaulted an eyewitness with whom the journalist was engaging.
The incident happened when the journalist and his colleague were covering the demolition of a warehouse, allegedly linked to the McDan Group, at Spintex in Accra, on Wednesday, July 30, 2025.
According to Calony, he was speaking to an eyewitness at the demolition site when the soldiers arrived at the scene. He narrated that one of the soldiers accosted him and questioned why they were filming the exercise. He explained they were pressmen covering the incident for their media house.
“Around that time, we were to go on air, so I was speaking to my producer. And in the process of talking to my producer, another military man from behind said it seemed I was filming and so he punched me from behind, two direct blows to my neck,” he narrated to JoyNews’ midday news.
“At that point, I lost control and almost fell down.”
Although Calony explained that he was a journalist on duty, his equipment was seized, and his phones were forcefully taken. His cameraman was also assaulted, and their camera was knocked down.
The journalist and three others, and the eyewitness, were subsequently detained and transported to the National Security Secretariat (Blue Gate), where their phones were searched for footage of the incident. Calony said he was detained for 45 minutes at the Secretariat.
When MFWA spoke with the journalist, he was receiving medical attention at the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC). He reports experiencing severe neck pain as a result of the assault.
“I am not feeling well,” Calony told the team in a telephone interview. “We were beaten for simply doing our job.”
This assault incident comes a day after President John Mahama called on African governments to safeguard press freedom and the civic rights of marginalised groups at the 13th High-Level Dialogue on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance in Africa in Addis Ababa. The president said democracy cannot thrive in the presence of fear and repression. The attack, therefore, flies in the face of President Mahama’s exhortation to other governments.
Today’s incident is the second in less than a month when security officers have attacked journalists for doing their work.
The MFWA considers the attacks on Carlos Calony, Jonas Sodzi Voergborlo, and the eyewitness who was being interviewed as a gross violation of human dignity and constitutional protections of press freedom under Article 162 of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.
The MFWA has noted that the Presidency, in a statement signed by its Spokesperson, has condemned the attacks and called for investigations and the imposition of appropriate punishment. While this is welcomed, the MFWA demands that the Minister for Defence and the National Security Coordinator attend to this urgently and with the highest level of transparency.
Moreover, the conduct of the National Security operatives in recent times, which appears to flagrantly disregard constitutional rights and human dignity during their operations, is becoming worrying. We urge the government to take these concerns seriously and address the excesses of the National Security.