Framework adopted by Ghana police set to improve relationship with the media

  • Posted on August 27, 2019
  • /Under Legal
The Ghana Police Service (GPS) has adopted a new framework aimed at fostering a better relationship between the Service and the media, following a year-long series of multi-stakeholder processes facilitated by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA).  This statement was originally published on mfwa.org on 20 August 2019. The Ghana Police Service (GPS) has adopted a new framework aimed at promoting relations between the Service and the media, enhancing safety of journalists and countering impunity for crimes against journalists in Ghana. The adoption of the Framework followed over a year-long series of multi-stakeholder engagements…Read more

Tanzania detains Watetezi TV journalist over investigation of police

The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned for the welfare of investigative journalist Joseph Gandye, who was arrested yesterday and handed over to police on whom he had reported critically, alleging they had abused other detainees. Police summoned Gandye, a production editor and reporter with Watetezi TV, to appear at Urafiki police station in Dar es Salaam, where they questioned him in the presence of his lawyer about his reporting, according to a statement from the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition, a non-governmental coalition that owns Watetezi TV. Police said they arrested Gandye on suspicion of publishing false…Read more

RSF calls for former Gambia president to stand trial for journalist’s murder

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, now living in exile in Equatorial Guinea, to be extradited back to Gambia to stand trial for the 2004 murder of Deyda Hydara, a newspaper editor who was the dean of Gambia’s journalists and RSF’s correspondent. RSF issued the call after an army officer confessed on July 22nd to Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission that he carried out Hydara's murder and said it was ordered by President Jammeh.  Detained since 8 February 2017, two weeks after Jammeh’s removal from office and…Read more

Channels TV reporter dies from injuries after shooting at Nigeria protest

Nigerian authorities should immediately investigate the death of Precious Owolabi, a reporter for the privately owned Channels TV, who was shot during a protest in Abuja on July 22, and ensure those responsible are held to account. Owolabi, 23, was shot while covering a confrontation between Shiite Muslim protesters and Nigerian police, and died the same day after being taken to a hospital, according to a Channels TV broadcast uploaded to its YouTube page. He had been covering a protest over the detention of Ibrahim Yaqoub El Zakzaky, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, according…Read more

Art Exhibition in Mumbai

Henrietta Nicholson, the widow of long-standing CPU Trustee and Executive Committee member Brian Nicholson, is holding an exhibition of her paintings in commemoration of her late husband's work within the Commonwealth newspaper industry, and her late father's involvement with Tata Airlines. The private view will be held in the Art Gallery at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel Mumbai on Monday October 7th 2019 at 6.30. Henrietta is an accomplished artist and examples of her work can be found by clicking here.Read more

Three men to be tried in Malta for Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) takes note of the announcement by the Maltese authorities that three men are to be tried for journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder in 2017 but insists that all those who wanted to silence her must be brought to justice. The announcement came 21 months to the day after Caruana Galizia, a journalist who investigated corruption, was killed by a bomb placed under her car outside her home in Malta. The three men – Vincent Muscat and Alfred and Georges Degiorgio – have been held for the past 19 months…Read more

TV news channels blocked in Pakistan after airing opposition speeches

Pakistan authorities should immediately unblock broadcasts of privately owned news channels Capital TV, 24 News HD, and Abtak News 247, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Yesterday, Capital TV posted a notice on Twitter stating that the three channels' transmissions had been blocked by the country's broadcast regulator, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority. Later that day, the Pakistan Broadcasters Association, a private industry association, issued a statement saying that the channels had been taken off air by the regulator without being given a reason or a hearing. The move came after the channels aired speeches…Read more

Two Ghanaian journalists arrested and interrogated, one allegedly tortured in custody

Ghana's Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice should immediately launch an independent investigation into the arrests of Modern Ghana editor Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri and reporter Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum and security forces' alleged torture of Abugri, and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On June 27, in Accra, the capital, Ministry of National Security officers arrested Abugri and Britwum at the offices of their employer, the privately owned news website Modern Ghana, interrogated them at Ministry of National Security offices, and confiscated their laptops and phones, according to Britwum, who…Read more

Cameroonian journalist detained on criminal defamation and false news charges

Abidjan, June 20, 2019 -- Cameroonian authorities should immediately release journalist Paul Chouta and drop criminal defamation and false news charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On May 28, in the Cameroonian capital of Yaounde, five police officers arrested Chouta, who works as a reporter for the privately owned Cameroon Web news website, in response to a defamation complaint filed by French Cameroonian writer Calixthe Beyala, according to Cameroon Web editor-in-chief Emmanuel Vitus, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app, and a person with knowledge of the case who asked not to be…Read more