US-based Ghanaian Professor, and private legal practitioner, Kwaku Asare has described as a very disturbing report on the state of press freedom following Ghana’s steep drop in the latest press freedom index.
“We were the torchbearer of press freedom in africa only a few years ago!” he commented in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
He said no wonder Ghana placed 60th out of 180 on the world press freedom ranking in 2022 because the government threw caution to the wind when several critics voiced their concerns about the seeming culture of silence gaining roots in Ghana.
“The fall to 60th from a polity that was ranked 22nd and 23rd only in 2015 and 2018 is a disturbing commentary on the state of press freedom, which cannot and must not be explained by COVID or other external factors.
“When Sir Jonah warned us of the culture of silence, we sent Yaanom to silence him.
“When the USfuo human rights group discussed the dangerous and unprecedented attacks on the media, Yaanom were quick to rubbish and silence them.
“Now that the RSF has downgraded us, are we also going to silence them OR do serious introspection as to why these independent assessors keep saying the same thing?” he questioned.
His comment comes on the back of a 2022 report by the Reporters Without Borders, on press freedom in Ghana.
The report, which was released to commemorate international Press Freedom Day, 2022, scored Ghana 67.43, placing Ghana 60th on the index that monitors 180 countries.
This ranking is the lowest the country has ever seen in the past 17 years since it placed 66th in 2005.
On the African continent, the country was ranked 10th behind a number of African countries, including Burkina-Faso which ranked 6th on the continent.
However in 2018, Ghana ranked first in Africa, a slot which is now being occupied by Seychelles.
The report also said “government has shown itself intolerant of criticism. In addition, one-third of media outlets are owned by politicians or by people tied to the top political parties. The content they produce is largely partisan”.
As part of the reasons for Ghana’s dip in the performance, the Reporters Without Borders, explained that based on its findings, journalists in Ghana do not earn decent incomes to sustain their livelihoods. The group therefore scored Ghana 47.22, in terms of the economic context of journalists.
Other indicators which were also used in the computation of Ghana’s current rating included the country’s political, social, legislative and security contexts, amongst others.
Source: Ghana/Kasapafmonline.com/102.5 Fm
