Mahama charges Ghanaians to rise against closure of radio stations

Former President John Dramani Mahama has charged the public to “rise up and speak against the dictatorial withdrawal of radio frequencies and closure of radio stations”, on the celebration of World Press Freedom Day.

He also condemned the killing of journalists like Ahmed Saule, as well as the harassment of some notable journalists like theghanareport.com’s Manasseh Azure Awuni and Edward Adeti leading the fight against corruption.

He argued that “when the freedom of the press is curtailed, democracy suffers and all other human rights that anchor dignity as human beings is eroded.”

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In a Facebook post on Sunday, Mr Mahama said, “Let us rise up and speak against the dictatorial withdrawal of radio frequencies and closure of radio stations by the government of Nana Akufo-Addo.”

“Let us remind and demand of government to stop paying lip service to the Right to Information Act,” portions of the post read.

Comparing the performance of the media under his tenure to President Akufo-Addo’s, Mr Mahama said the media had slumped seven places on the global ranking and lost the first spot in Africa to Namibia and Cape Verde.

“Ghana became the country with the highest levels of press freedom in Africa. At the time, we were ranked number one out of 54 countries in Africa. We placed 23rd on the global ranking among 180 countries.

“We have unfortunately lost this priceless status that made all of us very proud. This should worry us- not only journalists and media owners but all of us, as citizens and as Ghanaians,” Mr Mahama lamented.

He further pointed out that “just as the press performs a civic service to all of us, we [Ghanaians] also have a civic duty towards it, to always defend and be ready to fight for the freedom of the press.”

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