[ad_1]
The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has received disturbing reports of death threats issued against independent investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni from someone believed to be a political fanatic aggrieved by an opinion piece written by the award-winning journalist. on the results of the 2020 campaign. elections.
We have also received similar reports of death threats against other journalists across the country from people with political connections. This is the latest in a series of death threats issued against Manasseh in recent years. But the poison in the latest death notice emailed to you is poisonous enough to put out life, and for that reason the GJA wants to sound the alarm for everyone to respond.
The GJA fully condemns such barbarous contemplation, machination, orchestration, plot and plan, whether individually inspired or collectively conspired, to kill a journalist for fulfilling a legal mandate guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.
Given the growing lack of tolerance in our body politic and the inclination of some people to resort to brutality especially against journalists; given the reference to the gruesome murder of Ahmed Suale committed by the threatening man or to inform Manasseh about the fate that awaits him every time he picks up his pen to write, and given the fact that the evil person launched the death threat against Manasseh Christmas Day, a day that marks the celebration of the life of Jesus Christ, the Savior, and in which the good will of humanity abounds, this barbaric act of intent must be condemned to death by reaching the bottom and treating the guilty with decision .
In relation to the above, we call on the Ghana Police Service to investigate, arrest and prosecute the suspect as quickly and decisively as possible. We also call on the police to provide adequate security for Manasseh and other journalists across the country who have also received death threats. We believe that the seriousness that the police attach to these matters will help calm the nerves of journalists in particular,
Ghanaians in general and foreigners residing in the country on their safety and protection.
The GJA calls on the president, who is the commander-in-chief of the Ghanaian Armed Forces, to condemn the death threats against journalists and to offer firm guarantees of their safety. We also call on the National Peace Council, political parties, civil society organizations, religious organizations, and all well-meaning Ghanaians to strongly condemn the death threats issued against Manasseh and other journalists in the country.
We also urge our national and international media partners, including the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) and Rapporteur San Frontier (Reporters Without Borders) to condemn the death threats against journalists in Ghana.
We wish to draw the attention of our national and international media partners that, although Ghana is touted as a beacon of democracy in Africa, the nail of death is driving hard into the coffin of freedom of expression and freedom of the press, who are cardinal officials of democracy. And it’s time to stop the Pall Bearers from carrying the coffin of free speech and freedom of the press to the graveyard, as we try to raise them from the dead.
Kofi yeboah
(General secretary)
