Accra, Ghana – Edward Adeti has been on the run since 2019.
That 12 months, the younger Ghanaian investigative journalist uncovered how a Chinese language mining agency plotted with a senior decide to dismiss a case about gold theft from an Australian mine in northern Ghana. A authorities minister, a good friend of the stated decide, known as Adeti having bought wind of the yet-to-be-published story, to bribe him to drop it.
Adeti captured the dialog with him on tape and leaked it alongside the story within the Each day Dispatch, the newspaper he labored for, resulting in the minister’s eventual resignation in April 2019.
Since then, there have been threats on the journalist’s life, forcing him and his household to flee their house in Bolgatanga – 768km (477 miles) from the capital, Accra – in Ghana’s north. His home was burgled, rooms stripped naked, and his belongings taken away by unknown intruders.
“It’s very unsafe doing this job in Ghana,” Adeti advised Al Jazeera from his hideout. “I’ve to disguise myself earlier than I can step out. I left the area as a result of police detectives hinted to me that they’ve picked indicators that individuals are planning to eradicate me.”
In Ghana, free expression has lengthy been a cornerstone of its vibrant democracy however there was a surge in assaults on journalists by political actors and safety companies forward of the 2024 normal elections. These assaults vary from bodily assaults to intimidation and cyber-threats and have forged a shadow over the West African nation’s dedication to media freedom.
Season of intimidation
In accordance with the Ghana Journalists Affiliation (GJA), there have been a complete of 45 documented instances of assaults in opposition to journalists and media establishments from 2019 to 2023. Investigative journalist Ahmed Suale, an affiliate of worldwide acclaimed award-winning Ghanaian undercover reporter Anas Aremeyaw Anas, was killed in 2019 after a sequence of tales exposing traffickers, corrupt soccer officers, and excessive court docket judges. The police are but to make any arrests linked to the crime or conclude on the instances involving assaults on journalists. Anas himself has additionally escaped a number of assassination makes an attempt.
“That is how the job goes to be,” Adeti continued in an undertone. “However I like what I do. Maybe, I’ll die within the line of responsibility; [but] no person needs to die this manner, particularly when this work doesn’t carry any cash or any reward.”
In September, throughout a protest against economic hardship within the oil-and-gold-rich nation, the police maltreated and arrested not less than 15 journalists and moved them to the police station in a pick-up automobile guarded by closely armed officers. They had been launched after a couple of hours, following an intervention by the journalists’ union.
The 12 months 2023 witnessed the very best variety of annual instances, with 4 of the 9 instances reported in October. That month, a bunch of 17 youths linked to the governing New Patriotic Social gathering (NPP) attacked the studios of Accra-based non-public United Tv over the composition of a present’s panel. They had been later convicted and fined 2,400 Ghanaian cedis ($203) every.
For the second consecutive 12 months, Ghana skilled a decline within the yearly international press freedom rankings revealed by Reporters With out Borders (RSF). The nation dropped two positions, from sixtieth in 2022 to 62nd within the 2023 rankings.
Among the many most up-to-date incidents, Accra-based Citi FM reporter Akosua Otchere was bodily assaulted by opposition Nationwide Democratic Congress (NDC) supporters in October whereas protecting an occasion within the get together workplace. Her telephone was additionally seized by get together supporters.
A number of journalists who had been just lately attacked, declined to talk to Al Jazeera, fearful about probably victimisation.
Going ‘past management’
As Ghana prepares for the 2024 elections, there are issues that with out impartial reporting, residents could also be denied crucial info to make knowledgeable judgements, compromising the democratic course of.
The 2 main political events have denounced assaults on the press, as has the Ghanaian authorities. President Nana Akufo-Addo has additionally stated he prefers a “noisy, boisterous, typically scandalous media of at the moment to the monotonous praise-singing sycophantic considered one of yesteryear”.
In Might 2021, the federal government opened the Coordinated Mechanism on the Security of Journalists workplace underneath the Nationwide Media Fee – a state physique tasked with submitting and investigating complaints of assaults in opposition to journalists.
Info Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, a former broadcaster, involved in regards to the development of assaults, urged journalists to report such incidents.
He advised Al Jazeera that the federal government is dedicated to creating an surroundings the place journalists can “work with out worry of assaults”, and urged judges to ship stringent punishment in opposition to perpetrators to function a detriment to others.
Nevertheless, observers say it’s all speak and no motion from the Ghanaian authorities as earlier assaults have barely been investigated.
“Ghana’s management have thus far didn’t take the required actions to make sure safety forces don’t perpetrate violence in opposition to journalists,” Angela Quintal, Africa programme coordinator for Committee to Shield Journalists (CPJ), stated in a press release final October referencing the detention of Akyemansa FM broadcaster Nicholas Morkah by six troopers that month.
Kofi Yeboah, the overall secretary of the GJA, the umbrella physique of journalists, warned that the development might attain alarming proportions within the new 12 months.
“Within the run-up to 2024 [election] … it is necessary we deal with these points now … We don’t wish to have a scenario which is able to transcend management,” he advised Al Jazeera.
Such actions underneath an administration whose high-ranking members have beforehand boasted about championing civil liberties through the period of army rule, violate the rights of journalists and erode public belief in state establishments, Yeboah stated.
An rising variety of the union’s members have left journalism for public relations, he added. “That is undermining our watchdog function to make sure accountability … journalists can’t simply be protecting official occasions. So, we’re shedding our vital voice and mandates [in the media space],” the GJA scribe advised Al Jazeera.
In 2019, the Accra-based Media Basis for West Africa (MFWA) needed to ship out investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni to security in South Africa following a risk on his life by political actors. This was after he launched a documentary reporting {that a} non-public entity was coaching a pro-government militia group on the Osu Fortress, the previous seat of presidency.
Muheeb Saeed, supervisor of MFWA’s Freedom of Expression programme, advised Al Jazeera that incidents like this made the press watchdog involved about the way forward for the media in Ghana.
“If nothing is finished, it’s actually going to have an effect on the flexibility of the media to cowl the elections successfully,” he stated. “I feel that the administration has been comparatively repressive and has been in a position to cow a whole lot of journalists … and I might cite the truth that even a journalist as large as Anas Aremeyaw has come underneath a lot stress that over the previous few years we haven’t seen a lot about him,” stated Saeed.
In the meantime, Adeti stays in hiding.
“I really feel sorry for my household,” he advised Al Jazeera. “I’ve apologised to them for making them unsafe due to what I do. I really feel tracked. I really feel caught … once I get into the room and I lock the door behind myself, I see it as one other miracle; I’ve survived one other day.”
