Alabira, a correspondent for privately owned broadcaster Citi FM, told CPJ he was covering the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary primaries on January 27 in the northern town of Yendi when an unidentified man approached the counting area and accused an electoral official of destroying ballot papers. The man’s allegation resulted in an uproar among NPP party supporters, who began destroying ballot papers and electoral equipment, according to Alabira and a colleague, who witnessed the incident and spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.
When Alabira approached Farouk Aliu Mahama, an NPP member of parliament, for comment, the politician slapped the journalist’s face and kicked his leg, according to Alabira and his colleague. Mahama’s security guard then grabbed Alabira by the neck and seized his phone before several party supporters began hitting and punching the journalist on his head and back.
The attack on Alabira lasted about three minutes, during which an attacker smashed Alabira’s phone screen before police intervened and pulled Alabira to safety, according to those sources and video of the incident reviewed by CPJ.
CPJ recently documented the attack on another Ghanaian journalist, David Kobbena, a morning show host with the privately owned broadcaster Cape FM, at the office of the Central Regional Minister, who is a member of the NPP, in the central Cape Coast region on January 4.
“Authorities in Ghana must ensure a comprehensive investigation into the January 27 attack on journalist Mohammed Aminu M. Alabira, hold those responsible to account, and guarantee that journalists feel safe to report on political activities ahead of national elections later this year,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, from New York. “Repeated attacks against the press in Ghana by politically affiliated individuals are concerning and suggest an unacceptable disrespect for journalists’ crucial role in democracy.”
Alabira and his colleague said police officers took Alabira in their van to a nearby police station, where officers took his statement and gave him a form for a medical professional to complete. Alabira was examined at the local hospital, where he was given medication for a headache and chest pains.
The journalist said that police had told him they were referring the case to the attorney general’s office.
Alabira told CPJ on February 1 that he still suffers from a headache and chest pain from the incident and could not use his phone until repairing the screen on January 30. On February 5, he told CPJ that he still experiences occasional pain, but it had become less frequent.
When contacted by phone, Mahama declined to speak to CPJ but shared a document prepared by his lawyers, which accused Alabira of falsely saying in an online publication by his outlet that Mahama had slapped the journalist from behind and threatened legal action if the article wasn’t retracted and Mahama didn’t receive an apology for defamation in seven days.
Alabira told CPJ that he had never described Mahama as hitting him from behind, only from the front. CPJ’s review of the report on January 31 showed that it did not include Alabira saying Mahama slapped him from behind.
The Ghana Journalists Association called on police to arrest Mahama and his supporters and hold them accountable for the attack.
On February 6, four media rights groups—the Media Foundation for West Africa, the Ghana Journalists Association, the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association, and the Private Newspapers and Online News Publishers Association of Ghana—issued a statement calling on NPP leaders and police authorities to hold Mahama and his supporters accountable within 10 days or face further actions from the associations, according to CPJ’s review of the statement. The associations also called on media organizations to avoid covering Mahama.
CPJ called and texted the Ghanaian Minister of Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, national police spokesperson Grace Ansah Akrofi, and NPP General Secretary Justin Kodua Frimpong for comment but received no response.
]]>About 15 people, several of whom were wearing pro-NPP T-shirts, confronted and assaulted Kobbena while he was covering a vetting exercise at the office of the Central Regional Minister, who is a member of the NPP, on January 4, 2024, in the central Cape Coast region, according to news reports and Kobbena, who spoke to CPJ by phone.
Kobbena told CPJ that he reported the incident to police that same day and provided officers with pictures of three suspects involved in the attack but had not received any updates as of January 26.
“The attack on David Kobbena is a worrying sign for the safety of journalists covering politics in Ghana as the country prepares for its December 2024 general elections,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal, from New York. “Authorities should credibly investigate Kobbena’s assault and end the disturbing trend of impunity for attacks on the press in Ghana. The New Patriotic Party should also take appropriate disciplinary action if any of its members were involved in the attack and guarantee that journalists can cover its events safely.”
Kobbena said that he was confronted by two women dressed in T-shirts branded with a picture of NPP parliamentarian Mavis Hawa Koomson shortly after he arrived at the party’s offices to cover the vetting of candidates to run for parliament in this year’s elections. The women mistook Kobbena for another journalist and accused him of insulting Komsoon during a program on the privately owned broadcaster UTV, according to Kobbena and Sorkpor Kafui Kofi Justice, a regional correspondent with the privately owned broadcaster Adom TV, who witnessed the incident and spoke with CPJ.
Kobbena protested that he did not work for UTV, had not appeared on the program, and showed the women a press card showing that he worked for Cape FM. Although the women walked away, a man approached Kobbena with the same accusation, and the journalist said a crowd of NPP supporters quickly gathered around him and started assaulting him.
They slapped and punched him in the face and all over his body, according to the two journalists. Kobbena, who said some of the attackers were also wearing Koomson-branded T-shirts, was rescued by other journalists who pulled him away from the assailants. Kobbena said he suffered cuts on his lips, pain in his back and ribs, as well as a headache, adding that he was treated for his injuries and takes pain medication.
Justice said he reported the incident to the NPP central regional organizer, Anthony Kwesi Sackey. Contacted by CPJ, Sackey accused Kobbena of lying, saying that the journalist had earlier reported to Sackey that he had been attacked by two people and not 15. Sackey said that he gave Kobbena money for treatment and said that the NPP condemns attacks on the press.
Kobbena confirmed that an NPP director of communications gave him 1,400 cedis (US$115.73) for his treatment but said that the money was insufficient to cover the cost.
In a January 25 statement, the Ghana Journalists Association said that no investigations had been carried out into Kobbena’s assault and called for a news blackout on Koomson, who also serves as Ghana’s Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development.
CPJ’s calls and text messages to Samson Baaba, the police officer in charge of the investigation, Ghana’s National Police Spokesperson Grace Ansah-Akrofi, and Koomson went unanswered.
Editor’s note: This report has been updated to correct the spelling of the last name of NPP parliamentarian Mavis Hawa Koomson and Kobbena’s job title. The report was updated in the second paragraph to correct the description of the event and location, and the ninth paragraph to reflect who gave him the money.
On October 19, six soldiers attacked and beat Morkah, a morning show host with the privately owned Akyemansa FM broadcaster, after Morkah began filming the soldiers attacking a man in the Birim Central Municipal District of Ghana’s Eastern Region, according to a report by the privately owned Modern Ghana news website and Morkah, who spoke by phone with CPJ.
After noticing Morkah was filming, a soldier approached the journalist, grabbed his shirt by the neck and began to hit him, demanding to know why Morkah was filming. Morkah said five other soldiers then joined in hitting and kicking him all over his body, even as he told them he was a journalist.
“Authorities in Ghana must ensure that those responsible for beating journalist Nicholas Morkah are held accountable,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “Ghana’s leadership have so far failed to take the necessary actions to ensure security forces do not perpetrate violence against journalists.”
The soldiers seized Morkah’s cell phone, forced him into their van, and then hit Morkah with his motorcycle helmet at least five times before driving the journalist to their local barracks, where they erased everything on his phone by resetting it. They also accused the journalist of offending them.
While at the barracks, a senior officer requested that Morkah provide a contact for Yaw Yeboah, Akyemansa FM’s manager, then called Yeboah, informed him of Morkah’s arrest, and said the outlet would be prevented from covering future military events, Morkah told CPJ. Officers at the barracks also found Morkah’s second phone and searched it, Morkah said.
Officers then took Morkah to the local police command, where officers interrogated him, handed him a document alleging he had committed “offensive conduct,” and made him write a statement about the incident on that document.
Morkah said the officers released him the same day without charge on administrative bail for which he had to provide a surety and verbal assurances that he would be available for further questioning. He returned the next day and retrieved both of his phones.
After his release, Morkah said he went to a hospital where he was given medication for severe pain in his knee, back, and head, as well as cuts on his lips and head from the attack. Morkah said the cuts have healed, but added he was still in pain more than a week later.
Morkah filed a police complaint on October 23 and Akyemansa FM wrote to the National Media Commission, which is a national media regulator, the Ghana Journalists Association, a local trade group, as well as officials with Ghana Armed Forces and the Information Ministry, according to Morkah and the privately owned Joy Online news website.
According to a statement by the Ghana Journalists Association provided to CPJ, the Ghana Armed Forces expressed “readiness” to investigate the incident and hold those responsible to account. CPJ contacted Ghana Armed Forces’ director of public relations, Micheal Addo Larbi, at a phone number and email address he provided, but he did not respond.
Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, who owns the broadcaster where the journalist works, told CPJ that the armed forces were indeed investigating and promised a report would be out “soon.” The journalist said he had been questioned in the investigation.
CPJ reporting has identified a “broad pattern of impunity” in attacks on the press in Ghana, including by security forces.
]]>Click the images for more details about these unsolved cases. (Photo grid by Geoff McGhee)
It’s been over four years since assassins came to their neighborhood, waited for their sibling, investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale Divela, and then shot him in his car. “We heard the gunshot,” Tahidu recalled in a recent interview with CPJ. “Someone ran and said that they were killing our brother.”
Sitting steps from the crime scene, Tahidu expressed frustration with the failure by Ghanaian authorities to apprehend those responsible. Certain political elites have not been sufficiently scrutinized, he said, and his speaking out about the murder had brought new threats.
The lack of accountability in Divela’s case is indicative of a broader pattern of impunity for crimes against journalists in the West African country, often seen as one of the region’s most stable democracies with a high degree of media freedom. As with cases of other journalists attacked in recent years, Tahidu expressed dismay that officials had not been more supportive and communicative about their investigations.
Ghana’s presidential election is scheduled for December 2024 and opposition candidate John Mahama recently committed to “speed up” the investigation into Divela’s January 2019 killing. But words from authorities have offered the family little clarity or comfort. “They promised to get results very soon,” Tahidu said, recalling a conversation with Ghanaian Inspector General of Police George Akuffo Dampare following his appointment back in 2021. “Soon is yet to come.”
Divela decided to become a journalist out of dissatisfaction with inflation and the economic situation for average people in Ghana, his family told CPJ. He worked as a reporter with Tiger Eye Private Investigations, an investigative journalism group headed by Anas Aremeyaw Anas. The identities of Tiger Eye PI members are not publicly known, as they operate largely undercover to document alleged wrongdoing by those in positions of power.
The year before the murder, Anas and Divela received public threats from Kennedy Agyapong, a prominent member of Ghana’s ruling party now seeking to be Ghana’s president. The threats came ahead of the release of a Tiger Eye PI film exposing alleged corruption among African football officials, including then president of the Ghana Football Association Kwesi Nyantakyi. The documentary, “Number 12,” caused an uproar in Ghana’s soccer world when it aired in 2018, prompting Nyantakyi’s resignation and world governing body FIFA to ban him for life from football-related activities.
In March, a Ghanaian judge dismissed Anas’ defamation suit brought in response to Agyapong’s comments. A similar defamation suit filed in the U.S. is ongoing.
According to a Forbidden Stories investigation into Divela’s killing, Agyapong said he had “nothing to do with this murder.” Police said they questioned Agyapong – described as being close to Nyantakyi – as part of their preliminary investigation, but Tahidu believes the politician has not been adequately investigated. “He thinks he [is] above the law,” Tahidu said. CPJ’s calls to Agyapong did not connect, nor did calls to his brother, Ralph Agyapong, who serves as his lawyer.
Tahidu told CPJ he reacted with furious disbelief when police showed him a cheap cell phone without internet capabilities as the device Nyantakyi handed over for the murder investigation. Tahidu did not believe something so low-tech could be the primary device of a once-powerful sports boss and said it suggested the authorities had not taken their job seriously. Local media reported that police seized phones and computers from Nyantakyi months before Divela’s murder as part of their fraud investigations related to the allegations from Tiger Eye PI’s film, but Tahidu said police did not mention these to Divela’s family.
CPJ reached Nyantakyi by phone, but when asked about the police investigation into him after the killing, he said, “OK, thank you” and then the line disconnected. Follow-up calls rang unanswered.
Anas, who only allows himself to be photographed with his face covered, told CPJ that police had summoned him twice to give statements. The first was immediately after the killing and the second was more recently after a new homicide unit opened to investigate cold cases. Anas said he explained his working relationship with Divela and told police he did not have any information about the murder.
Tahidu now serves as the sole spokesperson for the family because of threats they’ve received. Tahidu told CPJ that in the period after the murder he was followed by a blue car with tinted windows and also received a call from an anonymous number. “If you know what happened to Ahmed, then you better shut up,” a voice said on the line before disconnecting. Tahidu informed the Ghana police of both incidents, but received no follow up.
Unus Alhassan, another of Divela’s brothers who previously spoke for the family, told CPJ in a phone interview that he left Ghana in 2020 over safety concerns related to his speaking about the killing. Two unidentified men had followed him on a motorbike in Accra and his friends speculated that he may be targeted further, Alhassan said. He too filed a police report, but has not received any follow-up.
CPJ visited the Ghana police headquarters in Accra in March to request an interview about Divela’s case and other investigations into attacks on journalists in the country, but was told no one was available to speak. Officers there provided a Google email address for media requests. CPJ emailed that address and another listed on the police website requesting an interview, but received no response. Police similarly did not respond to questions about Divela and 30 other journalists arrested, threatened, or physically attacked since January 2019.
“We only feel totally neglect[ed], as if we are not Ghanaians in our own country,” Tahidu said, emphasizing that he and his family will continue pressing for answers. “If it is left with this Ghanaian law enforcers, I’m afraid it will always be a talk show.” Tahidu also refuses to let anyone else in his family become a journalist. He knows why his brother Ahmed entered the profession, but vows to prevent anyone else he loves from doing something so dangerous.
]]>Abuja, May 11, 2023—Ghanaian authorities should ensure that the local politician and aide who recently assaulted and threatened to kill journalist Abubakari Sadiq Gariba are held to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.
On the evening of May 3, Iddrisu Hardi, a former regional deputy communication officer for the National Democratic Congress party, and local resident Mumuni Osman were captured on video attacking and threatening Gariba while he was live on his weekly talk show “Panpantua,” at the office of the privately owned broadcaster Dagbon FM in the northern Tamale region.
On May 7, police arrested both attackers and said they would present them in court, according to Gariba and news reports.
“Authorities in Ghana must ensure justice is served after two men attacked and threatened journalist Abubakari Sadiq Gariba as he broadcast live,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “Too often in Ghana, there is talk of investigations by police for attacks on journalists but there is no real accountability. Authorities must reverse this trend.”
Prior to the incident, Osman and Hardi, a member of the National Democratic Congress party who had appeared as a regular guest on Dagbon FM, asked a security officer at the station’s office for access to the studio to speak with Gariba, according to Gariba and another Dagbon FM presenter and producer Yussif Fuseini, who spoke to CPJ by phone.
The security officer asked Hardi and Osman to wait until he could confirm their appointment, but they refused.
Hardi and Osman entered the studio, and Hardi grabbed Gariba by the top of his shirt, tightening it around the journalist’s neck causing him to have difficulty breathing. Hardi then pulled Gariba up from his seat and pushed him against the wall, as the pair threatened to “knock the hell out of” Gariba if he dared to speak further about Hardi on his program, according to those sources and a report by state-owned news website Graphic.
“The next thing he [Osman] said was if I don’t desist from mentioning the gentleman’s [Hardi’s] name, he would kill me,” Gariba said, adding that he responded to the attack by requesting that the three of them go outside to resolve their dispute, which they did.
Hardi and Osman continued verbally confronting Gariba about his work until a Dagbon FM colleague intervened and convinced Hardi and Osman to leave, Gariba said.
Gariba said he believes the attack was connected to an April 24 episode of Panpantua in which the journalist critiqued a campaign broadcast in which Hardi allegedly attempted to dissuade Abudu and Andani clan members in Ghana’s northern Dagbon area from supporting each other during the upcoming primary election for the National Democratic Congress party.
When CPJ called Hardi, a person answered and said the case was in court and that Hardi did not have access to his phone, and declined to comment further. CPJ was unable to locate contact information for Osman.
CPJ’s calls to police spokesperson Grace Ansah-Akrofi did not receive a response. David Ananga, the regional crime officer in charge of investigating the attack, requested CPJ send him questions via messaging app, which CPJ sent. He did not respond by the time of publication.
Since January 2019, CPJ has documented a broad pattern of impunity for abuses against over 30 journalists and media workers in Ghana, including the 2019 murder of journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale Divela.
]]>But four years later – despite police assurances of progress and two arrests – nobody has been tried or convicted in the journalist’s murder. Meanwhile, crimes against journalists continue. Since Divela’s death, at least 30 other Ghanaian journalists and media workers have faced abuses in connection with their work, including attacks, threats, and arrests.
Ahead of the fourth anniversary of Divela’s murder, CPJ followed up on each of these cases to learn whether anybody had been held responsible. While there were a few patchy attempts at accountability, CPJ found a broad pattern of impunity that flies in the face of Ghana’s reputation as a stable democracy where freedom of the press is enshrined in the country’s constitution.
Since 2019, CPJ’s research shows that 14 journalists and media workers have been physically attacked in relation to their work – nine of them by members of Ghana’s police or military. The attacks have continued in spite of Ghana’s police and media groups adopting a 2019 framework for improved relations and the safety of journalists. Officials involved were rarely disciplined, and when action was taken journalists said it was insufficient.
In one incident, police officers kicked and punched journalist Malik Sullemana when they arrested him in March 2019, leaving him with blood clots in his left eye and bruises on his limbs. Police temporarily suspended three officers while they conducted an investigation, but Sullemana said that he received no further update about the inquiry. He said that he has since seen several officers involved back on the street in uniform.
“When something happens people talk about it and then it fizzles out,” said Sullemana, one of the 17 Ghanaian journalists and media workers detained since 2019, most of them briefly.
CPJ found that at least 10 journalists have received written or verbal threats in connection with their work over the past four years. That includes Erastus Asare Donkor, who went into hiding after he was threatened on television by parliament member Kennedy Ohene Agyapong in July 2021. Agyapong, who had also threatened Divela before his murder, said Donkor should be “beaten seriously” over his reporting about Ghanaian officers’ alleged shooting of protesters. Police and parliament both opened investigations into Agyapong’s statement, but the journalist said he was never informed of the findings.
In addition, since 2019, CPJ has documented attacks on the offices of at least three private broadcasters – Benya FM, Zylofon FM, and Radio Ada FM – during which the assailants assaulted journalists, vandalized the premises, or stole equipment. In separate interviews, staff from each of the outlets said the authorities’ responses were insufficient.
In the January 2021 attack on Zylofon FM, for instance, the broadcaster’s security guard shot the attacker and police apprehended the injured man, but after he recovered he escaped from the hospital and has not been rearrested, according to Zylofon presenter Ahmed Abubakar.
The broad lack of accountability has resulted in a tendency toward self-censorship among members of the media, say those interviewed by CPJ.
“Journalists will always balance a likely attack against the benefits of the story they are pursuing,” said Muheeb Saeed, senior Africa program officer with the Media Foundation for West Africa, a Ghana-based organization that monitors press freedom across the region. He questions whether Ghana’s authorities have the will to protect the press. “The state is too powerful to fail if it actually meant to stamp out impunity. At the highest level there is no commitment.”
Sullemana, for his part, said the attacks amounted to a stain on the country’s reputation. “We are one of the countries in Africa that the rest of the world looks up to. The world considers Ghana as a country of good governance and rule of law,” he told CPJ. But, he said, “it is not safe to practice journalism in Ghana.”
CPJ emailed Ghana’s police press office and its parliament but received no response. Phone calls to police spokesperson Grace Ansah Akrofi went unanswered. CPJ also emailed Ghana’s military but received no response.
Here are details of the cases involving the 30 journalists who have faced abuses for their work since Divela’s murder and what, if anything, authorities have done to respond.
Benya FM was unable to broadcast for four days as a result of the damage, according to Benya FM’s program manager Usman Kwaku Dawood, who also spoke to CPJ by phone.
On May 20, Ghanaian police charged the three alleged attackers with assault, unlawful entry, conspiracy to commit a crime, stealing, and causing unlawful damage, according to a report by the privately owned news website The Ghanaian Standard and Abraham Bansah, commander of the Elmina police prosecuting the case, who spoke to CPJ over the phone.
During a court hearing that day, the three men pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to The Ghanaian Standard report and Dawood, who attended the hearing. The case is expected back in court on June 28, Dawood said.
Eshun, who is also known as Osofo Blessing, and Egyirfah,who is also known as Nana Gyefo, told CPJ that they were familiar with the attackers and identified them as supporters of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP). Dawood told CPJ that apparent NPP members attended the hearing in support of the three men.
The attack took place as Eshun was discussing the politics of local fishing during a program called “Afarikua,” which aired at 7 p.m. That night’s segment focused on the perceived irregularities in the distribution of premix fuel, a government-subsidized petroleum product managed under Ghana’s Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, according to the ministry’s website, The Ghanaian Standard report, as well as Eshun and Dawood.
One of the three alleged attackers was described in court as an attendant at a premix fuel station, according to Egyirfah and The Ghanaian Standard report.
Egyirfah told CPJ that the three men arrived at the station by motorbike and began calling for Eshun by one of his on-air pseudonyms before entering the building. Suspecting the attackers were there for trouble, Egyirfah attempted to lock the entrance to the station before they could reach it, he said. But the attackers forcefully pushed back the door, and twisted his left arm, then started destroying equipment as they searched for Eshun, according to Egyirfah.
Once the attackers found the studio, they pulled Eshun from his seat, stomped on his back, sides, and stomach, and dragged him out of the room, the journalists told CPJ, adding that the attacks only stopped when Eshun became unconscious.
Eshun said his Android phone, which was in his pocket, was smashed during the attack, breaking the screen. The attackers also destroyed a studio mixer, two headphones, fivemonitors, six computers, three keyboards, three tables, two chairs, and a video graphic adaptor cable, according to the journalists and The Ghanian Standard report.
When Eshun regained consciousness later that day, he reported the attack to the divisional police station, he said. He was given a permit to receive free medication at a local hospital while the police opened an investigation into the incident, according to Eshun.
CPJ emailed questions on May 30 to the Ghana Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development through the contact information on its website, but has not received a response.
CPJ’s calls and text messages on May 31 to NPP General Secretary, John Boadu, went unanswered.
]]>On March 5, two soldiers at a military hospital in the Ashanti region repeatedly slapped Aidoo, a member of an investigative journalism fellowship program organized by the local press freedom group Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), and forced the journalist to do push-ups for taking pictures of the hospital, according to the journalist, who spoke by phone with CPJ, and an MFWA report.
The attack lasted around 30 minutes, during which the soldiers also briefly placed a cement block on Aidoo’s waist to make the push-ups more difficult and deleted all the photos and videos he took that day from his phone, Aidoo said.
“Authorities in Ghana must hold those responsible for the March 5 attack on journalist Michael Aidoo and ensure that the press can work safely without fear of violence or censorship by security forces,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, from New York. “Far too often impunity prevails when journalists are violently attacked by those who are supposed to ensure their safety. These security officers make a mockery of the rights of the press and the people.”
Aidoo said he was assigned as part of his MFWA fellowship to investigate the alleged abandonment of the Afari military hospital, located in the Atwima Nwabiagya district of the Ashanti region. He had gone there at 6 a.m. on March 5, hoping that he would arrive early enough to avoid any authorities who might seek to interfere with his reporting.
Aidoo said he met a military officer at the entrance to the hospital and after being granted access, he filmed the premises and interviewed a security guard. He was about to leave when he found that an office of Ghana’s ruling New Patriotic Party was located within the hospital grounds and decided to film the office as well.
Aidoo said that while filming the NPP office, the same military officer approached him and demanded that the journalist hand over his phone. When the journalist refused, the officer grabbed it and Aidoo said he then ran away, leaving the phone with the officer, but the officer chased him, slapped him five times on the face and head, and then took the journalist to the military base on the hospital grounds.
At the base, another officer threatened to beat Aidoo if he did not unlock his phone, so Aidoo complied, the journalist told CPJ. The soldiers then called their commander, who instructed them to delete the journalist’s photos and videos and to return the phone to the journalist.
After deleting the photos and videos, the soldiers called the commander again, who asked to speak with Aidoo on the phone; the commander asked why the journalist was filming and taking pictures of the hospital premises and said he had told his soldiers to slap the journalist after the commander learned about the pictures.
According to Aidoo, the soldiers then told the journalist that he would be punished and instructed Aidoo to do 30 push-ups. The soldiers forced the journalist to start anew each time he failed to do the full 30 without stopping and the soldiers briefly placed a cement block on his waist to make it more difficult, he said.
The soldiers removed the cement when Aidoo told them after two attempts that he could not proceed with the push-ups while carrying the cement, he told CPJ. The soldier returned Aidoo’s phone and told him to run from the hospital premises, but the journalist felt too weak to run and was experiencing leg pain, so he walked out; the soldiers threatened to further punish him if he did not run, he told CPJ.
After leaving, Aidoo said he informed his employers and was advised to report the incident at the police station, which he did the same day. CPJ’s calls to the number listed on the Ashanti regional police website rang unanswered.
Aidoo also said he visited the hospital, where he was given some medication to stop the pain but was told he had no major injuries. Aidoo, however, said he had a cut on his left hand that happened sometime when the first soldier forcefully took him to the military base. He added that because of the incident, he had difficulty breathing for three days.
The MFWA wrote to Ghana’s minister of defense, Dominic Nitiwul, requesting an investigation into the attack, according to the same report by the foundation. Muheeb Saeed, a senior programs officer with the MFWA, told CPJ by messaging app that they have not received any response from Nitiwul. CPJ’s calls and text messages to Nitiwul went unanswered.
]]>At about 1:30 p.m. on February 3, in the western city of Takoradi, a group of at least five police officers in plain clothes attacked Gyetuah, a program producer with the privately owned broadcaster Connect FM, according to reports by Connect FM’s affiliated news website 3news.com and a journalist familiar with the incident who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.
Gyetuah photographed the officers while they sat in a restaurant with their guns showing and joined by men in handcuffs; when the officers saw him take photos, one of them approached Gyetuah and demanded he hand over his phone, according to those sources.
When he refused, the officer tried to grab the phone and, together with other officers, began beating Gyetuah all over his body with their fists and guns until his face was covered in blood. The officers dragged Gyetuah to their vehicle, handcuffed him, and brought him to the local police station, where they said he was charged with taking pictures without their consent, the journalist familiar with the situation told CPJ.
At about 5 p.m., Gyetuah was allowed to leave the station after a colleague posted bail by signing a surety for him, according to that journalist and those news reports.
“Authorities in Ghana must ensure that all those responsible for the violent attack on journalist Eric Nana Gyetuah are held to account,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “Ghana’s police should ensure the safety of the press, and that includes holding to account those in their ranks who beat up journalists.”
Gyetuah sustained damage to his right ear and his lips were cut open in the attack, the journalist familiar with the incident said.
He received treatment at a local hospital for his injuries; he has since developed severe headaches and cannot not hear well, according to that journalist and those reports. 3news.com later published an update that Gyetuah had been diagnosed with a perforated ear drum.
On February 7, Ghanaian Inspector-General of Police George Akuffo Dampare called Gyetuah to apologize for the officers’ conduct and promised to investigate the matter, according to the reports by 3news.com.
Dampare also told Gyetuah that the charges against him had been dropped, according to the journalist who spoke with CPJ.
Gyetuah produces Connect FM’s Omanbapa (Good Citizen) morning program, aired on the outlet’s Facebook page, which discusses general interest topics.
CPJ called and messaged Police Director of Public Affairs Kwessi Ofori for comment, but did not receive any reply.
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