Charlotte Osei, the former chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, has expressed sorrow about the use of criminal law to violate freedom of speech by politicians.
Speaking in a round table discussion that was monitored by 1Family Radio, the former EC boss noted that the media, which is supposed to serve as the voice of the citizens, has been subjected to threats and silence by our politicians.
According to her, politicians have taken over the media, using it for their personal gain and also prosecuting journalists who dare to question them.
She furthered that, although we claim to practice democratic governance, it seems like we are still in the era of dictatorship, and this is a very troubling issue for the country.
“At this point, we seem to have lost our sense of direction. When we talk about clamping down on freedom of expression and press freedoms, we tend to focus on the use of state power against either journalists or citizens who have criticized the state or said something the state doesn’t like. And that is a key issue.’’
She continued, “The issue now is that when you add media plurality, which we have corrupted, rather than it being a vehicle for increasing our freedoms, we have allowed politicians to hijack the ownership of the media houses. And so, the plurality of media houses has now become another tool, either for attack or for suppression of press freedom.’’
“And I think that we are on a very slippery slope. We are doing ourselves collective injury, and in terms of solutions, we need to go back to our core duties as citizens, the respect that we owe to each other, and permitting other citizens to express themselves,’’ she added.
Source: 1FamilyRadio