The Ghana Journalists Association has issued a strong-toned statement to counter the defence of the Ghana Police Service that it did not arrest and maltreat any journalists on the first day of the ongoing #OccupyJulorBiHouse protest.

In the statement signed by Kofi Yeboah, General Secretary of the GJA, he said that while initial reports only indicated that two correspondents of the BBC in Ghana had been arrested by the police, its own investigations show that there were more international journalists involved.

“The GJA is utterly disappointed in the police for lowering the bar of professionalism by arresting and maltreating journalists who did not breach any law but rather breached their comfort on a national hallowed day (Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day) to discharge their cardinal duty of informing the general public about happenings in the country.

“Our investigations indicated that some journalists, including correspondents of foreign media organisations such as the BBC, AFP and AP, were arrested in spite of the fact that they properly identified themselves,” the statement said.

Kofi Yeboah further challenged the police’s account of things, telling the service directly in the face that it perpetuated lies in its earlier press release on the subject.

The GJA statement stressed that while the police described the accounts of the affected journalists as lies and falsehood, the real lies is what the Ghana Police Service issued.

“The police press release, signed by Superintendent Juliana Obeng, Head, Public Affairs Unit/AR, described the media reports as ‘erroneous’ in paragraph one, adding in paragraph two, ‘The police would like to put on record that the report is false and should be disregarded.’

“Contrary to such claims by the police, our investigations confirmed that, indeed, two BBC correspondent were arrested by the police. Therefore, if there is anything ‘erroneous’ and ‘false’ that ought to be disregarded by the public and even roundly denounced for its deception, it is the police release denying that which is factual, and not the media reportage extolling the truth and fact,” it added.

Background

On Day 1 (September 21) of the #OccupyJulorbiHouse protests by the Democracy Hub, a group of young activists; police illegally rounded up 49 protesters who were marching to demand action on prevailing economic crisis and corruption.

The illegal arrests, especially how they were conducted by the police triggered harsh criticism of impeding the constitutional right to protest and deploying highhandedness on the part of police.

Police sent the detainees to the regional headquarters before splitting them up to about eight police stations dotted across the capital, even as colleague protesters and lawyers worked to secure bail for the illegally detained persons.

In this process, other journalists and protesters who massed up, especially at the Accra Regional Command encountered some amount of police violence including shoving, forced detention, seizure of phones, and in the case of other physical assault.

In their first of two statements on the day, police said the illegal arrests were justified because protesters were defying a court injunction served on them, which process they denied had been properly served.

The second statement addressed the purported arrest of a BBC journalist and his cameraman, which reportage they dismissed as untrue.

By the close of the day, almost all illegally detained protesters per GhanaWeb checks had been released from illegal detention on bail, it remains to be seen whether Day Two of the three-day protest targeting the seat of government, the Jubilee House, will come off today (September 22, 2023).

Read the full statement below:





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