Regional News of Tuesday, 18 November 2014

Source: starrfmonline.com

GJA condemns arrest of Citi FM CEO

The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), has condemned the arrest of the Chief Executive Officer of Citi FM, Samuel Attah-Mensah.

The Boss of the private radio station was picked up Monday by the Bureau of National Investigations in connection to a publication of a story on the station’s website about the arrest of a suspected cocaine courier who allegedly used a diplomatic passport.

But the General Secretary of the Ghana Journalists Association, Dave Agbenu in an interview with Starr News said the BNI did not do due diligence.

According to him, the only remedy to addressing a false story is to issue a rejoinder and not to arrest the CEO of the media house.

“If it’s on the grounds of professional work [then] it’s unlawful…if the story happens to be untrue, there are other means to get a rejoinder.

“This is a profession, if somebody puts out a false story the only remedy is you go out there and put out a rejoinder or if you are not satisfied, you go to the law courts, arrest is not the solution,” Agbenu said.

Meanwhile, Attah-Mensah told Citi FM in an interview after his release that his interrogation only took about three minutes.

“I gave them an account of what happened, and it took three minutes, and then we used another 45 minutes to one hour talking about everything from football, to alcohol to religion and everything.”