“Toothless Bulldog” NMC Boss Side With Suppression Of Ghanaian Media

Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC) Mr. Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo, in a rather partisan move has scorned the damning reports that Ghana is one of the most brutal countries in the world in terms of suppressing press freedom.

According to the man who should be the protector of the media space, those who claim a culture of silence is creeping on the country under Akufo-Addo are people who openly express themselves on radio.

Speaking on Accra-based TV 3, Mr. Ayeboafo said such persons contradict themselves if they claim the culture of silence and media suppression is creeping back.

“Who is suppressing who? Some of the times you listen to some of the people saying that they are not allowed to express themselves and yet they are expressing views, they are sitting on radio stations, they are sitting on TV stations and still they say they are being suppressed,” a petulant Ayeboafo retorted.

“Recently, I listened to a programme on a radio station where somebody was saying that Nana Akufo-Addo is a lawyer but he doesn’t understand the law and that we don’t need any referendum for the election of DCEs, and he was quoting from the constitution. Meanwhile, there is nothing like that in the constitution. This is an ignorant person.”

But Mr. Ayeboafo’s sarcastic take would come across as a sweeping generalization especially because he did not name the persons who are claiming to be under gag and yet are freely speaking on air.

For many, the creep back of the culture of silence under the despotic iron hands of the Akufo-Addo regime has culminated in the President and his appointees using the rogue National Security Agency to clamp down on journalists who had reported things that did not favor the government.

The arrest and molestation of two Modernghana.com journalists; the arrest of Whatsup News Editor-in-Chief, David Tamakloe in a trumped up charge for investigating a report that implicated an Akufo Addo political financier; the arrest of TV3’s Caleb Kudah and a colleague, Ms. Abu Baidoo; the killing of Ahmed Hussein Suale and dozens of other brutal harassment of journalists in their lines of duty has been the trademark of the Akufo Addo administration.

This has resulted in the world press freedom index compiled by the Journalists Without Borders (RSF) downgrading Ghana’s global press freedom ranking by a 100% and by over 200% in Africa.

In the new rankings, even Burkina Faso which is currently under a military dictatorship is regarded as more friendly towards journalists than a supposed so-called civilian rule under Akufo Addo.

Eve Journalists known to be loyal to the regime, including Joy FM’s E vans Mensah and Afia Pokua (Vim Lady) have not been spared the brutal assault.

Afia Pokua recently admitted that the threats from state actors to her life had forced her to install more than seven CCTV cameras in her home, but she still feels unsafe.

She promised not to cover the 2024 elections because she says she can sense a brutal crackdown on journalists in an election that promises to be as bloody as the one in 2020 superintended by the Akufo Addo regime as it desperately sought a second term.

Almost a dozen people protesting election rigging were shot dead by state security agents, and several others were seriously injured.

The Akufo-Addo government also notoriously closed down radio stations deemed to be pro-opposition throughout its first term, only allowing them back on air after it won a second term.

And then there have been the killing of investigative journalist, Ahmed Suale after he helped with investigations that revealed that former President of the Ghana Football Association, Kwesi Nyantakyui was pursuing a US$8million bribe to share with President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Bawumia.

Last week, Ghana fell 30 places on the Reporters Without Borders index on press freedom in Ghana, with the country plummeting from its position as the 30th on the index to a disgraceful 60th which makes a military junta run Burkina Faso a country with a freer press than Ghana.

However, in a rather tone-deaf analysis, Mr. Ayeboafo claims there is no suppression of free speech but a political turf war in the country.

“What I know, from where I sit is that because of political intolerance in the country, if you speak favourably of the NPP, the NDC people will attack you, if you speak favourably of the NDC, the NPP people will attack you. The consequences of this are that there are many good people who know but are not talking…,” the NMC boss dubiously claimed.