Koku Anyidoho: Media Must Be Called To Order

Koku Anyidoho     Related Stories   The Communications Director at the Presidency, Koku Anyidoho, says the country is suffering from the tyranny of the media because journalists are holding Ghanaians to ransom. He said due to the nation’s quest to broaden the frontiers of free speech, some journalists and media houses have taken undue advantage to peddle untruth about individuals as well as the government. Koku Anyidoho was Speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana programme Thursday, on media reports suggesting that there has been an attempt by the police to gag the media. Mr Anyidoho said it is about time the media are called to order, and accused the National Media Commission (NMC) and the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) of not doing enough to ensure the media discharges its duties responsibly. He therefore challenged them to be proactive and check some of the unhealthy activities of the media. "If you listen to independent public opinion, people are getting worried, people are getting nauseated, people are getting sick and tired of the media.” The Communications Director at the Presidency warned: “Lets not think because we have access to the microphone or the pen, we can hold everybody to ransom.” Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper, a co-panelist on the programme, was of the view that the police should exercise circumspection in dealing with issues related to freedom of expression. According to him, the uninterrupted freedom the media enjoys today did not come by accident but through hard work and must therefore be sustained. Malik Baako reminded the government that it is in its own interest to ensure that the recent trend where free speech seems to be criminalized is truncated due to the icy relationship that existed between the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) & National Democratic Congress (NDC I) administrations, on one hand, and the media on the other side of the coin.       Source: myjoyonine.com