Sulemana Briamah, the Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), says, Justice Eric Baah, the Judge who presided over the defamation case filed by ace Investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas against maverick politician Kennedy Agyapong, went beyond probing the case.

Reacting to the ruling on Joy News’ news analysis program, Newsfile, Sulemana Briamah explained that, Justice Baah, instead of finding out what was true and justifiable, rather ended up defaming the character of Anas.

He explained, “He went beyond probing whether what Kennedy Agyapong said was true, or not true, justifiable, fair and whatever, to actually himself defaming the character of Anas. “I believe that if this was being said on the streets that would have amounted to another instance of defamation,” he said.

Sulemana Briamah described the ruling as incomprehensible as the presiding judge on the case focused more on explaining and giving a title to the methodology of Anas rather than determining if Kennedy Agyapong was able to prove beyond reasonable doubts his claims against Anas.

“I saw a clear instance of, you know, the whole case moving beyond whether Kennedy was able to prove that Anas is a murderer, extortionist etc to the judge examining the methodology Anas uses and whether or not journalistically that is appropriate or not appropriate. And then I asked myself there, oh, was this judge a journalist before becoming a judge?,” he said.

The press man sarcastically questioned the expertise of the judge in determining the kind of journalism Anas practices and his methodology.

He quizzed, “Or was he an academic in the media sector before becoming a judge? Because clearly, he was trying to establish what is right and what is wrong to the point where he then goes on to say, what has been practiced is not investigative journalism, but something else.”

EAN/WA