General News of Monday, 16 January 2012

Source: GNA

TUC Calls For Inquiry Into Attack On Journalists

The Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called for an inquiry into the attack on a Daily Guide photographer, Miss Gifty Lawson and others, covering court proceedings at an Accra Human Rights Court in Accra on Thursday.

A statement issued and signed by Mr Kofi Asamoah, Secretary General of the Union and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Sunday said “information reaching the TUC suggests that not only were the journalists arrested, but in the process they were subjected to severe beatings.”

It noted that they were also threatened with death by gun-toting officers of the BNI for doing no more than their duty as journalist.

The statement explained that the news report have it that Gifty Lawson in particular “was roughly handled in a sexist and Chauvinist manner characteristic of male chauvinist that have little respect for womanhood.”

It said the union wished to state clearly that such conduct was not the type of behaviour expected from the BNI or any other security agencies in the country in the performance of their duties.

It therefore called on the authorities to bring the perpetrators to book to serve as a deterrent to all. It also reiterated that the days when security agencies of the state acts with impunity were long gone and the people would no longer appease impunity.