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 Ghanaian soccer corruption. 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 if journalists are rarely arrested. The vast majority of cases of police aggression against journalists go unpunished and yet timid attempts have been made to combat this impunity. Three policemen were suspended after attacking journalists in 2019. A law on access to state-held information was finally adopted, 20 years after it was first introduced in parliament.