SEE THE #MomProject ABOUT GHANAIANS MEDIA INDEPENDENCE
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 are owned by the state or by businessmen linked to the government. A group of investigative journalists had to spend part of 2018 in hiding after producing a documentary about corruption in Ghanaian soccer. A ruling party parliamentarian who had been named in the documentary publicly threatened one of the journalists without ever being arrested or questioned. The journalist was shot dead in the street a few months later. The investigation announced by the authorities has ground to a halt. Investigative reporters are often threatened even though journalists are rarely arrested. The immense majority of cases of police aggression against journalists go unpunished but timid attempts have been made to combat this impunity. Three policemen were suspended after attacking journalists in 2019. Nonetheless, journalists covering the effectiveness of the government’s measures against Covid-19 were attacked by police again in 2020. Politicians have also made death threats against investigative reporters. A law on access to state-held information was finally adopted, 20 years after it was first introduced in parliament.
