The national executive committee of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) called on the Ghana police to use constitutional mechanisms to address grievances and complaints they may have against journalists and the media.

According to the GJA, criminalization of speech in any form was unacceptable and would be resisted with the support of the society in consonance with the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

At a meeting between the GJA and the Ghana Police Service, there was consensus that the two institutions would cooperate in a manner without necessarily compromising their roles and that the media was not above the law.

The meeting became necessary when the police summoned two editors over news reports in their respective media.

On July 21, Enimil Ashon, editor of the state-owned Ghanaian Times newspaper, was summoned by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the police over a story that the police said was undermining the image of the police.

Earlier on July 19, Ato Kwamena Dadzie, acting news editor of Joy FM, an Accra based independent radio station was charged with “publishing false news with intent to cause fear or harm to the public or to disturb the public peace”, contrary to Section 208 of the country’s Criminal Code of 1960.” The police have since forwarded his docket to the Attorney General’s Department for advice.

Dadzie’s invitation sparked a widespread condemnation of the application of the law. The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) requested the authorities to drop the case and called on supporters of free speech to agitate for the repeal of the law. The Center for Democratic Development (CDD), an Accra-based governance NGO, also in a statement called for the repeal of the law.

However, the Ministry of Information in a statement on July 21 denied that the police had charged Dadzie, saying he had only been cautioned.

The statement signed by John Akologu Tia, the minister of information said “the (President John Atta) Mills administration believes in the strengthening of our institutions including the media and will be the last to truncate the freedom of the press, but the rights that are enjoyed by the media must be balanced with

Ato Kwamena Dadzie, news editor of Joy FM, an Accra-based independent radio station, was charged with a criminal offence for refusing to reveal the station’s sources of information on a July 5 news item.

The station had carried report to the effect that an umbrella body of local contractors, Ghana Real Estates Developers Association (GREDA), had been issued death threats to withdraw a petition that it had sent to Ghana’s parliament to oppose a controversial housing deal that the government of Ghana had entered into with a Korean company .

Dadzie told Media Foundation for West (MFWA) that he was charged with “publishing information with the intention to cause fear or harm to the public or to disturb the public peace”, under Section 208 of the country’s Criminal Code of 1960.

The charge followed an interrogation by police personnel drawn from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police.

Dadzie was expected to appear in court on July 21.

This was the second time that the police had preferred an outmoded charge of “publishing false information” against two citizens this year. On February 18, Nana Darkwa, an opposition sympathizer and radio commentator, was arrested by the police and remanded in prison custody for two weeks over comments he made on a radio station allegedly accusing Ghana’s former President Jerry John Rawlings of setting fire to his (Rawlings’s) own house. The case is in court.

MFWA was sad that the police was using this law which is inconsistent with the 1992 Constitution, which guarantees free expression of citizens and demand that the charge against Dadzie was dropped unconditionally.

MFWA reiterated its call on all supporters of free speech to protest against the use of archaic laws to stifle free speech in Ghana by the country’s police.

Dauda Mohammed, the newspaper photographer who was reportedly abducted on July 12, 2010 by unidentified men for taking pictures of a private mansion of Ghana’s ex- President Jerry John Rawlings reportedly escaped from his abductors, after about an hour’s detention.

Mohammed, a reporter of privately-owned The Insight newspaper, told an Accra-based Joy FM in an interview that as he was taking the pictures, a man wielding a knife emerged from a four wheeled vehicle and ordered him into the car, where three other men were already seated. According to Mohammed, he fled and his abductors pursued and arrested him with the help of another man, who thought he was a thief.

Mohammed said he was hit in the face and taken to an unidentified location, where he was asked about his motive for taking the pictures. Luckily for him, the door was unlocked and he managed to escape.

Following recent claims by Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, wife of the ex-President that the former first family had nowhere to live after their official residence got burnt on February 14, the government and other critics doubted this claim. Mohammed and his other colleague, Duke Tagoe therefore went to investigate the claim that Rawlings and his family could not be homeless since they own private houses.

One of the abductors on July 13 said as a concerned citizen, he arrested Mohammed but did not know that he was a journalist. He said as a loyalist of the former president, he feared Mohammed who was holding a bag could be hiding a weapon with the aim of destroying the mansion.

The Media Foundation for West Africa considered the abduction as example of intolerance. We called on the police to ensure thorough and independent investigation into the crime and bring the perpetrator(s) to justice in the most exemplary manner.

Dauda Mohammed, a photographer of privately-owned The Insight newspaper was reportedly abducted by unidentified persons in Accra while taking pictures of a private mansion belonging to Ghana’s former President Jerry John Rawlings.

The managing editor of the newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. told Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) that Mohammed was picked up about 17:00 Hours and that his whereabouts remained unknown.

Duke Tagoe, a colleague of Mohammed who accompanied him, told an Accra-based Joy FM radio station that the photographer was bundled into a BMW vehicle with registration number GW 8180 R and whisked away to an unknown destination.

The case was reported to the police who began investigations into the matter. However, Kofi Adams, an aide to the former President denied any knowledge and involvement of the security guards of the ex-president in the reported abduction. He told Joy FM that the former first family was not interested in the kidnapping of any journalist.

During the previous week, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings , the wife of the ex-president, had claimed on a radio station that the former first family had nowhere to live, since their official residence got burnt on February 14. The government and other critics doubted the claim by the former first lady. Pratt is one of such critics who claimed that Rawlings and his family could not be homeless since they owned private houses.