To Prevent A Return To Tyranny No One Should Be Allowed To Limit Press Freedom In Ghana

 "The price of freedom  is eternal vigilance."
                                  -  Thomas Jefferson, 3rd U.S. President.

*THE SUPREME COURT MUST DECLARE LEGISLATIVE INSTRUMENT (LI) 2224 UNCONSTITUTIONAL - AND ORDER THAT IT SHOULD BE SCRAPPED

Are there dark forces seeking to curb press freedom, and freedom of expression,  operating from the shadows, in today's Ghana, one wonders?

The question is: Why are some people in the top strata of Ghanaian society so determined to control what the Ghanaian media says and does - and by extension what ordinary people say publicly about what important people in Ghanaian society get up to?

Is it not far better, to keep the flame of liberty alight, in a democratic society, by allowing and tolerating even the most despicable and outrageous of comments, than to seek to regulate media content - just to curb unsavoury comment about powerful people on the airwaves of radio and television stations, and in sundry publications?

Alas, that is the price society has to pay, to protect press freedom - and by extension ensure the right of ordinary people in Ghana, to  freely express themselves publicly - from illiberal politicians who are criticism-averse and intolerant of dissent.

What modern society has advanced and become prosperous without the free exchange of ideas that leads to the best ideas coming to the fore and propelling that society forward? None.

If important people don't want to be disrespected, let them stop being hypocrites and behave properly - and stop stealing Mother Ghana's money. They must also stop sleeping around with young bimbos - and abandoning them after impregnating them.

If we are to become an innovative society we must allow talented people to speak their minds freely and allow them the space to be themselves and to set their own standards. That is how our own local versions of the Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerbergs of this world will emerge to transform our national economy with bleeding-edge inventions.

We are too scared of non-conformist individuals. We must move away from being a society that  worships at the alter of the cult-of-the-mediocre, which destroys creativity and kills the sense of  initiative in bright children and brilliant young people with enquiring minds - by brow-beating them into submission. Let us cherish talented free-spirits - even when  they say and do things we disagree with.

Did those who drafted the pernicious National Media Commission Content Standards Regulations (LI2224), not realise -  in light of the emasculation of the Ghanaian media, during the days of the culture of silence, when Ghana was ruled by a brutal military dictatorship - that they were handing tomorrow's tyrants, a backdoor building-block, for muzzling the Ghanaian media, again, with legal backing? Shame on them.

The Supreme Court recently suspended LI2224, as a result of a suit filed against its operation, by the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association - which objects to having to seek prior approval from the NMC for its broadcast content. That is as it should be. Nothing can justify the abomination that LI2224 represents.

If we are not careful, one day, in the hands of Machiavellian  politicians who are also closet-tyrants, LI2224 will become a weapon of mass control, that will be used to silence the media - as Ghana regresses and becomes a dictatorship again.

The Supreme Court should take a step further, and ensure that Ghana remains an open and plural society - by simply declaring LI2224 unconstitutional. No one in our country should have the power to control the content of radio and television stations and press houses in Ghana - for at some point, what amounts to the power of censorship in the hands of the NMC, will be used on behalf of those in power, to curb freedom of expression in our country, as sure as day follows night.

*WHY IS THE INFORMATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS SEEKING TO CONTROL THE WORK OF FOREIGN JOURNALISTS IN GHANA?

Global opprobrium exerts a powerful influence over tyrants - so all over the world, radical activists and freedom-loving people, work hard to protect media professionals, both foreign and local: so they can speak out against tyrants.

That is why if the story is true, then it is right and proper, that the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA),  condemned the said arrest of three Danish journalists, said to have occurred on the 10th of April, 2016, at Akyem Saamang. Ditto the alleged siezure of recorded video footage they apparently shot, in the section of the Atewa Range upland evergreen rainforest there.

If the story is not a hoax, then perhaps when Denmark's Impact TV sent out three of its reporters to Ghana, to film material for a documentary about mining, and its impact on the natural environment,  it never occurred to them that they would face the same kind of hostility from local officialdom, which foreign journalists face in dictatorships, such as those in Eritrea and North Korea.

The unlawful seizure of recorded film shot  by the Impact TV team, and the unlawful arrest of Jorgen Ebbe Christensen, Troels Kingo and Sandra Hargaard, allegedly by Kibi Goldfields' management, raises a number of serious issues about press freedom in Ghana.

If Ghanaian journalists can go to Denmark, and shoot films for television documentaries, without first having to seek official permission to do so from the Danish government, why should Danish journalists not be able to do so in Ghana too, when our nation's constitution guarantees media freedom?

If the1992 constitution seeks to prevent tyranny in Ghana, by guaranteeing editorial freedom for media entities, and outlaws censorship for the same reason, why should foreign journalists on assignment in Ghana, be restricted in their work, by the unlawful edicts of the Information Services Department (ISD) of the Ministry of Communications?

All those public officials who kowtow to the wealthy criminals amongst those who run Kibi Goldfields, must always remember, when sanctioning the manhandling of journalists, both local and foreign, by Kibi Goldfields - by their actions and inactions - that President Mahama, and Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg, co-chair the 16 eminent persons, who were appointed by the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki Moon, as UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Advocates.

What will the world think of such vile behaviour - when a gold mining  company run by ruthless and unethical individuals, who daily destroy nature to enrich themselves, can harrass journalists with impunity, in what is supposed to be a democracy, led by a co-chairperson of the UN SDGs Advocates, I ask?

At a time of global climate change, surely, the people of Denmark, and the rest of Scandinavia, who will pay for climate change amelioration projects, in  countries like Ghana, have a right to know about the abominable and unspeakable destruction of a section of the Atewa Range upland evergreen rainforest, which is going on in Akyem Juaso even as we speak?

Is it not part of  an area designated a Globally Significant Biodiversity Area (GSBA) by Conservation International, which carried out a rapid assessment survey there in 2006?

And did the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki Moon, not appoint President Mahama, and Norwegian premier Erna Solberg, as co-chairpersons, of eminent persons from around the world, serving as SDGs Advocates precisely to prevent egregious crimes against humanity that the destruction of forests and other natural habitats around the world represent - such as the brutal gang-rape of Mother Nature being committed with such impunity by those currently mining gold  illegally at Akyem Juaso?

If they can, and if the story is true, then the Impact TV team from Denmark, must be allowed to return to the section of the Atewa Range upland evergreen rainforest, in which 32 tonne excavators are busy unlawfully destroying what has taken millions of years to evolve, in a few  hours, daily, to film and record that abomination.

For the records, the world must take note that the area in question, is neither part of Kibi Goldfields' concession, nor does it belong to the landless and feckless Odikro of  Akyem Juaso, Barima Kofi Osei - an embodiment of all that is wrong with the Chieftaincy institution in 2016.

The land in question actually belongs to the P. E. Thompson Estate, and is part if it's 14-square mile freehold upland evergreen rainforest property, at Akyem Juaso. The two parcels of land were acquired as freeholds, and registered at the Deeds Registry, in 1921 and 1926, respectively, and consolidated as one landholding thereafter. But I digress.

If it is indeed true that  a ministry of communications in-country assignment-edict for foreign media, actually exists, then the ministry and the ISD must cease trying to control the work of foreign journalists in Ghana, forthwith. It smacks of the Orwellian control-tactics employed by dictatorships.

The painful truth that foreign journalists see on the ground, which they record on film for posterity, and write about in the print and online media, should never shame us.

On the contrary, it ought to  rather inspire us, to work hard to make our homeland Ghana, a better place for all of it's people. Why should such work have to undergo a "national security reality conformity check," I ask - if it is true that that actually is the case, and such an ISD edict exists, that is?

It is  hard to believe that in the 21st century politicians in an African democracy can actually have the courage to come up with such an illiberal policy. Who is the genius who came up with such a daft idea?

And what kind of Orwellian double-speak is that? Has Ghana now become a police state? We should tackle negative narratives by foreigners, by transforming our nation into an African equivalent, of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia - not by national security censors submitting the work of foreign journalists to "reality conformity checks." Haaba. How absurd.