STATEMENT IN REACTION TO MEDIA REPORTS ON MY PURPORTED INVOLVEMENT IN A ¢36 BILLION ACQUISITION OF PHONE LINES FOR PARTY FRIENDS & FRONT JOURNALISTS

Following a publication in The Insight of Monday, 13th & Tuesday 14th November, 2006 and a subsequent denial and rebuttal by the Hon. Minister of Information & National Orientation on 13th November, 2006 I wish to react as follows:

On or about the 12th day of June, 2006, I was approached by an official of the Ministry of Information and National Orientation with a proposition to work full time at the Ministry with specific reference to a Media Monitoring Team that was being set up at that Ministry.

At the time, I had resigned my job as Regulatory Affairs Manager of British American Tobacco Ghana Limited as of June 5, 2006. My response was to thank the said official and to decline the offer on the ground that I was coming out with my own newspaper which was scheduled to be launched in late June or sometime in July, 2006. I also informed the said official that the demands of newspaper editing and management will not allow me to take up the offer, apart from other ethical considerations.

Subsequent to this, I received an invitation via phone to attend a meeting at the Ministry of Information on the 26th day of July, 2006 and responded that I will not be able to attend that meeting because my newspaper, The Ghanaian Observer was scheduled to be launched at 5p.m. that day. Indeed, I did not attend that meeting.

It is instructive to note that the Hon. Minister Minister in his statement of rebuttal to the Insight story apart from confirming my declining the offer even went further to state that my name and that of another journalist (who was apparently also approached to take up a role on the Media Monitoring Team but declined) inadvertently appeared on the list that was sent to Ghana Telecom; upon which realisation Ghana Telecom was informed for the deletion of my name on September 5, 2006; the original letter having been sent to Ghana Telecom on or about the 26th day of July, 2006.

I wish to state for emphasis that at the time the Ministry of Information & National Orientation official approached me on or about the 12th day of June, 2006, I was not an employee of the British American Tobacco Ghana Ltd nor of any media house; neither was I the Editor of any newspaper or media house.

The Ghanaian Observer was indeed launched in the evening of Wednesday, July 26, 2006 at the Ghana International Press Centre and was out on the newsstands on Thursday, July 27, 2006; where it has remained since.

Since the launch of my paper on the 26th day of July, 2006, I have concentrated on its growth and development with my colleagues on the paper and therefore find it strange that The Insight could without verifying publish categorically that I am part of a list of names that was submitted to Ghana Telecom for the issuance of telephone lines.

I wish to state categorically that I am not a beneficiary of any Government-sponsored phone line neither have I had Government nor any of its agencies pay for my phone bills, either private or official.

Needless to state, as the legal maxim holds Nemo Dat Quod Non Habet – I cannot give up what I do not have. If I had a Government sponsored phone line I would have given it up but unfortunately, that is not the case as some persons have prayed and wished for, and so I cannot give anything up.

EGBERT FAIBILLE. JNR

14th day of November, 2006