Manasseh Azure: False Publication Law Used to Target Opposition Voices in Ghana | Big Issue

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[00:00:00]When I say, "You're welcome." Are you Are you Are you saying that media freedom has no checks?

[00:00:09]I must say that I don't agree with the content of those speeches.

[00:00:14]The insults, uh uh the curses, the threats, I don't agree with them.

[00:00:22]But, there is a section of it that is being um targeted, which is dangerous.

[00:00:30]So, if somebody threatens to kill another person, that falls within a separate domain.

[00:00:37]If the police service come in, and the police come in then they decide to use the laws of the state to investigate and find out whether this person has the capacity, whether he meant it, and whatever, that I don't have any issue with.

[00:00:53]But, that is just the exception, which some hypocritical base of people are trying to shift all the argument to the threats, which is there by one or two people.

[00:01:05]There have been many instances where people made comments that are deemed only defamatory.

[00:01:14]Somebody alleges that Ashanti Regional Minister and some other ministers were involved in galamsey.

[00:01:21]If these comments are false, the Ashanti Regional Minister can sue for defamation.

[00:01:28]But, they use the police to harass and target these people.

[00:01:35]Somebody was uh made a comment on a WhatsApp platform saying, "But, is this that kind of This person is also calling himself a DC in the North East Region?"

[00:01:43]And we have a police letter inviting that person.

[00:01:47]A journalist published just an excerpt of Anas A Number 12 video.

[00:01:53]And somebody feels aggrieved, and instead of suing this person for defamation, they use the police, they arrest this person, they detained him for a a long time. Eventually, nothing came out of it.

[00:02:09]So, the point I'm trying to make is that there are limits to free speech.

[00:02:15]As I sit here, on Monday, I will be cross-examined in court.

[00:02:21]I have been sued for defamation.

[00:02:24]Between 2015 and 2025, I was sued 15 time Sorry, 11 times for defamation.

[00:02:32]Four of them were two cases uh from two uh sorry, plaintiffs. That's one person suing twice.

[00:02:43]But, the first seven, when I filed my defense, all of them discontinued the cases.

[00:02:51]But, at the time of filing the suit, they said what I had published was false.

[00:02:56]So, Sanda, if in each of these occasions, this person didn't sue for defamation, but rather decided to use the police to arrest me, lock me up, take me to a judge whose attitude is a disgrace to the court more than what Abronye said, and I'm put on in remand for a number of weeks, and then eventually gets my freedom, another person sues Sorry, is aggrieved, and I'm arrested and put within that same period.

[00:03:35]I would have ended up suffering incarceration 11 times.

[00:03:42]When a majority of these people, at the time of shouting that I published falsehood, knew I was right, and I could defend my actions in court.

[00:03:53]So, the point I'm trying to make is that there are avenues to deal with grievances when someone's publication or speech does not favor you.

[00:04:07]On February 11, 2022, John Dramani Mahama wrote a letter an open letter to then President John sorry, President Nana Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

[00:04:21]That letter is still on uh Facebook his Facebook wall as we speak.

[00:04:29]And in that letter, now President Mahama is telling Akufo-Addo to stop oppressing journalists and oppressing free speech.

[00:04:40]And a paragraph says, "President Akufo-Addo" I'm quoting what President Mahama said, "You cannot continue to oppress the people, criminalize speech when these matters are essentially civil in nature."

[00:04:57]What we are experiencing are essentially civil in nature.

[00:05:02]But they know that if they sue, they're not going to make any headway.

[00:05:07]Let's use the police to teach them where power lies as they say in our local parlance.

[00:05:13]And you have certain judges, and I say this again, that what Akwasi Bronya said, any reasonable person in this country who knows Akwasi Bronya wouldn't look down on the judiciary just because of what he says.

[00:05:29]They are more likely to look down on the judiciary because of the actions of judges who just throw uh citizens in remand when there there there's no actually a reason to do that.

[00:05:44]So, the point I have been trying to make, which many people some know but they are trying to just shift the attention is that we are in a country of laws. So in this case of in case in this case of the the fight the minority has against the circuit court judge nine who remanded Abronyea DC, you think that that should not have happened?

[00:06:09]The remand should not have happened.

[00:06:11]When I look at that I'm not a lawyer but when you look at that charge sheet and you apply a bit of common sense one until Abronyea said this I don't I didn't even know that he had said many Ghanaians didn't know until he was charged.

[00:06:28]The law on publishing false news doesn't just say if the news is false they say if it has a potential to cause a fear and panic.

[00:06:38]How many Ghanaians panicked because Abronyea on some obscure platform said something about the judge?

[00:06:44]And if what he said was contemptuous a contempt of court proceeding may have been brought or he might have been cited for contempt of court. It is not the police who would come and say that what he said was false and that it could result in a it could cause fear and panic. No. But I have a question I have a question for you. Should we draw a line between political activists taking to a media platform either traditional which is TV or social media and making comments that are insulting offensive and derogatory?

[00:07:19]Should we lump all these people simply because they are behind a screen and call them media people and say journalists under attack or we should separate party activists doing media propaganda from a journalist like you and I who would use a traditional platform or even if it's a new media platform but who are guided by ethics of the GJA for instance?

[00:07:44]What I wrote to the former president is not about journalists and attack. I said media freedom.

[00:07:51]Media freedom. Sorry, I said freedom of expression. Sorry, freedom of expression.

[00:07:56]>> Mhm. Every Ghanaian is entitled to freedom of expression.

[00:08:01]Every Ghanaian, when you express yourself, you are to be held responsible for what you say. Mhm.

[00:08:10]And you can if it's the person is a journalist or media, you can take the person to the media Sorry, media commission, or you can sue them.

[00:08:18]If it's a private citizen, and then you find their comment offensive, defamatory, you can sue them.

[00:08:25]So, the point I'm trying to make is that there is a broader issue of freedom of expression, and not just the media. In the past administration, it was more of attack against journalists. But now, I think I know of only one journalist who was arrested and detained, but many of them are party activists.

[00:08:47]And sometimes, they will tell you that, "Well, we have to sanitize the uh space and others." But if you look at their own system, when NPP was in office, Abronye could insult and get away with it.

[00:09:04]Kennedy Agyapong could sit on TV and threaten somebody. When even the person was killed, nothing happened to him.

[00:09:11]Okay, because his party was in government.

[00:09:14]Today, Abronye is not doing something different. It is just because his party is in opposition.

[00:09:21]Do I defend what he's saying? No.

[00:09:25]I think everybody deserves to be respected. I cannot go on radio, and if I have a problem with uh As I said, Baffour Awuah. I may disagree with him. I have to disagree with him. I cannot insult him, lie about him, and then say all manner of terrible things about him and his family. Okay. But the point still remains that even today there are NDC people and persons who are believed to be linked to the NDC or speaking in favor of the NDC who insult, who vilify who denigrate who threaten all manner of persons including former president Kufuor.

[00:10:06]Okay.

[00:10:06]>> Such people are held as heroes They were. within a certain rank of the NDC who are saying we should cross crucify Abronye. So, the point is that the law against false publication is being used to target members of the opposition and critical voices against the government.

[00:10:27]It didn't start today. It happened in the previous administration. Some of us wrote copiously about it. It is happening now, and we should not keep quiet, and we should not allow certain people to just say, "Oh, it is about threat, threat." How many of those people are arrested? If you look at the list the media foundation published that in this period of Mahama, more people have been arrested using that law in the than the entire uh sorry um Nana Addo era. Okay. That's fine. And it isn't true that all of them are threats. Okay. I