Police have no business regulating what false news is – Prof Karikari

Police invoke false news in recent arrest of journalits

CSOs warn government against using Criminal Libel laws

Media, politicians slammed for reckless comments

Public discourse is suffering recklessness from two quarters, the media and politicians. This is according to former Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Prof. Kwame Karikari.

He stressed in an interview on Accra-based Citi

Read full articleTV that, be that as it may, it was problematic that the Ghana Police Service has recently woken up a law on false news to justify the arrest of journalists.

The former Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa, MFWA, while condemning the reckless application of freedom of speech in the media space warned that the police was not the right institution to ‘police’ speech.

“We are aware of them and we don’t condone them but this law has been around for a very long time, why is it now that the Police are waking up this law and arresting journalists left and right? The kind of things or expressions that the Police are basing the law on to arrest these people, examples abound.

“When the Police is policing speeches, the tendency is for them to be arbitrary because in the cases we are talking about, you will notice that these expressions, based on which the people had been arrested, are all targeted at the Executive or government,” he stated.

"But is the Police telling us that those media that belong to politicians favouring the government don’t make any reckless statements against people in opposition and so on? In other words, in using such a law, the Police is the not right instrument to define what is false news.

“The Police intervening in matters of speech will almost always tend to be arbitrary and selective. In our part of the world they are likely to do so only when it is in the interest and favour of the ruling government,” he quizzed further.

A number of government critics – journalists and activists – have had a tough time with the law recently. One journalist was sentenced to jail for contempt of court.

Another has been arraigned before a court over publication of false news, the same charges have been slapped on an activist while in the most recent case, #FixTheCountry convener is facing treason felony charges for threatening to stage a coup.

The wave of arrests and prosecution has triggered concerns about the way and manner in which the government is going after critics with criminal processes in instances that some politicians, civil society groups and social commentators aver that civil processes should suffice.

1 - Godsbrain Blessed Smart, the host of Onua TV’s Maakye program, was in December 2021 arrested for calling for a revolution in the country while decrying the rate of corruption and decadence in governance.

2 – A Radio XYZ presenter, Oheneba Boamah Bennie was last week jailed for two weeks for contempt for statements he allegedly made against Supreme Court judges after the 2020 elections.

3 - Mensah Thompson, Executive Director of ASEPA, a think tank, was charged with publication of false news by a Circuit Court in Accra and was subsequently admitted to bail of GHC50,000 with two sureties.

4 - Kwabena Bobie Ansah of Accra FM was arrested on Thursday, February 10 for making untrue allegations against the First Lady, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo, and the wife of the Vice President, Samira Bawumia.

5 - Police confirmed the arrest of Oliver Barker-Vormawor, an activist and convener with the #FixTheCountry movement, for threatening a coup in a Facebook post.