A Deputy Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Ernest Owusu Bempah has criticized the National Democratic Congress (NDC) over the alleged abuse of a journalist during a press conference by the opposition party in Assin North on Monday, June 26.
In a statement, Mr Owusu Bempah said that it was a clear case of the “NDC hoodlums feeling so secure at the venue of the press conference and exerting their pound of flesh on the journalist.”
At the most fundamental level, he said “the NDC appears not to accept that the role of the media is to hold politicians to account. And as such they will do anything to undermine press freedom.
“At this juncture, I call on the Ghana Journalist Association(GJA) to stand up and be counted. The GJA needs to speak out and call out the NDC on the injustice meted out to one of its own.”
Below is his full statement…
For Immediate Release
NDC’s attack on Peace FM reporter in Assin-North puts journalists everywhere at greater risk
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The disturbing news of an NDC attack on yet another journalist at Assin Breku on Monday afternoon reached me not long ago.
It was supposed to be a media briefing, meant to update the constituents of Assin-North on the party’s campaign. Instead, NDC hoodlums drove off the rails, turning the briefing into, perhaps, the most surreal news conference ever seen.
Under the watchful eyes of party leaders including John Mahama, Sammy Gyamfi and Asiedu Nketia, NDC hoodlums at the press conference pounced on a harmless Peace FM reporter, Odum Prince Linford and made nonsense of our press freedom indicators.
The fact that the Press conference was held in the premises of St Andrews Senior Secondary School, a facility owned by the party’s Central Regional Chairman, Richard Kofi Asiedu speaks volumes.
It was a clear case of the NDC hoodlums feeling so secure at the venue of the press conference and exerting their pound of flesh on the journalist.
At the most fundamental level, the NDC appears not to accept that the role of the media is to hold politicians to account. And as such they will do anything to undermine press freedom.
At this juncture, I call on the Ghana Journalist Association(GJA) to stand up and be counted. The GJA needs to speak out and call out the NDC on the injustice meted out to one of its own.
Ernest Kofi Owusu Bempah Bonsu
Deputy Director of Communications, NPP