Media watchdog, Journalists Without Borders has once more ranked Ghana poorly, at 30th position in the global press freedom index.
The countries ranking remained the same as the 2020 rankings at 30th position, but a breakdown of the indices indicates that Ghana did worse this year than in the previous year.
In the rankings, the higher the scores on the indicator, the poor the ranking. Hence, a score of 6.72 for Norway is translated to a higher ranking than Eritrea which scored 81.75.
Ghana was ranked 30th in both 2020 and 2021, however, in 2020, Ghana has a score of 21.33 and 22.26 in 2021, indicating further decline in press freedom standings among the 180 countries captured in the ratings.
According to the Reporters Without Borders, “Although Ghana continues to be seen as one of the most democratic countries in Africa and Chapter 12 of its 1992 constitution guarantees media pluralism and independence, a third of the media is owned by the state or by businessmen linked to the government.”
The Akufo Addo administration is seen as one of the most intolerant to media freedom in the history of the country, following the sheer number of media organisations and personalities that have been targeted by the government.
The government has clamped down on dissenting voices, including the mysterious assassination of investigative journalist, Ahmed Hussein-Suale who was investigating a serious case of corruption at the Jubilee House.
Other journalists such as David Tamakloe, the Editor-in-Chief of Whatsup News has been inexplicably arrested at gunpoint twice within six months for reporting on issues of injustice and corruption.
Others, including Manasseh Awuni Azuri, etc have had to escape into exile or gone into hiding for the explosive revelations they made about the government.
The situation in the country last week forced the hitherto private Dr. Sam Jonah to issue an explosive statement where he warned that the country has degenerated into the days of despotic leadership and the “Culture of Silence”.
The Akufo Addo administration is increasingly regarded as a failed government with a high rate of corruption reports, failure to invest in infrastructure to stem erratic power and water supply and an almost non-existent investment in healthcare, despite the unprecedented loans it had contracted within four years.