You’re not immune from criticism – GJA replies Judicial Service

Pressure is mounting on Ghana’s Judicial Service to withdraw what many have described as threats against the media. 

President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Affail Monney, demanded that the service immediately withdraws its directive to media houses, describing it as “scandalous”.

While stating that the Judiciary was not above criticism, he, however, admonished the media to do so in a manner that does not bring the administration of justice into disrepute.

In his strongly-worded reply to the Judiciary Service, Mr Monney said the service should not attempt to instil fear and promote the culture of silence, a situation in which Ghana was enveloped during the period of autocratic misrule.

He was reacting to a caution statement by the Judicial Service which asked the media to “pull or cause to be pulled down and cleared from your platforms, all statements and speeches which convey and/or insinuate hateful, spiteful, vengeful and incendiary communication against Justices of our client especially those hearing the election petition”.

According to the Judicial Service, such stories tend to create disaffection for judges and also compromise the confidence of the public in the judicial system.

It added that should the media fail to heed to its caution, it would not hesitate “to take appropriate action to ensure that you do not abuse the right to free speech by deploying and/or permitting your platform to be deployed in a manner that not only threatens our constitutional order and democracy but obviously, adversely interferes with the due administration of justice and also, brings it, into disrepute”.

However, the GJA President holds the view that the Judicial Service should thread with caution.

“If not reversed immediately, the ill-advised, ill-timed, ill-crafted, and ill-issued statement by the Judiciary Service can provoke a tsunamic backlash, lower the dignity of the court in the eyes of freedom lovers and critical citizens, pollute the media environment, undermine our impressive media rankings globally, and dim the beacon of our democracy,” he underscored.

Prove threats to media

In a counter-reaction, the lawyer for the Judicial Service, Thaddeus Sory, has vehemently opposed claims of media threats in his statement to the press.

According to him, the Judicial Service did not say it was immune from criticism but rather called for decency and avoidance of hateful comments.

Mr Sory further dared the GJA President to provide proof of media threats in his caution statement.

“Why could he not quote one single sentence in the statement which shows that it is scandalous except to just mount it? The reason he couldn’t do that is because nothing in that statement makes it scandalous, ill-timed, and all of those words he used against the judiciary,” he said in an interview on Accra-based Joy FM.

While mounting a spirited-defence to his statement, Mr Sory said the caution was directed at GhanaWeb.

When asked if he thought the timing of the caution which was ahead of the ruling for the 2020 election petition was appropriate, Mr Sory said “very very well-timed”.