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Ghana

Government indicates it will change libel laws

The new government of President John Kufuor is giving indications that it will scrap those aspects of the Penal Code that criminalise freedom of expression.

At a meeting with journalists at Ada, a beach resort, near Accra on January 13, President John Agyekum Kufour repeated his campaign promise to repeal Ghana's criminal libel laws. Two weeks later, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Nana Akuffo-Addo, repeated the President's offer in Parliament. "Our government is committed to the repeal of those (criminal libel) laws, " he told the Appointments Committee that vetted him.

Many leading members of the ruling New Progressive Party (NPP) gave similar assurances while in opposition. The Party's then spokesman on Communication, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, described the need to review the criminal libel law as "pressing and urgent." But in spite of these assurances, journalists and free speech advocates are skeptical. On a radio programme on January 17, Prof. Kwame Karikari, Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa, Mrs. Affenyi Dadzie, President of the Ghana Journalists Association and Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafo, Executive Secretary of the National Media Commission, challenged the government to put a time to its promise. Their scepticism stems from history.

None of the past governments, including the Busia administration from which the NPP traces its roots, and of which President Kufour was a Deputy Foreign Minister, ever bothered to repeal these laws, which legal experts say, were enacted by colonial governments to stifle agitations for independence. So why will the Kuffour administration review them now?

There are a number of reasons. First, the laws are archaic and un-democratic. In Nigeria, the Supreme Court has ruled them unconstitutional. In Britain, where the law dormantly exists in the books, and which devotees have persistently cited as the reason why Ghana's own should not be repealed, their constitutionality has always been in doubt. The last criminal libel prosecution in Britain, reportedly, took place half a century ago.

Secondly, more modern and progressive avenues exist today for the correction of media infractions than criminal libel. People aggrieved by bad media coverage can seek redress through the National Media Commission. The GJA Ethics Committee also exists to check undue media attacks, which has always provided argument for supporters of criminal libel. In addition, the Constitution provides mandatory rejoinder to enable individuals respond to negative media coverage. Where these prove inadequate for lovers of litigation, they can always sue for civil libel.

The third reason for the repeal of criminal libel is that, free media are generally considered essential weapons in the fight against corruption. Exposure of corruption, and even ridicule of the rogue, is essentially a method of social control that has been confirmed effective. Therefore, if President Kufour's "zero tolerance" of corruption is sincere, he will need a strong and unfettered press as an ally. For the media has a constitutional mandate to hold public office holders accountable. The press can do this only when they are free from the fear of harmful laws like criminal libel.

The urgent need to show to the world that they are more progressive than the former National Democratic Congress (NDC) government will also encourage the NPP to review the criminal libel laws. The NDC persistently supported criminal libel. Their Attorney-General, Dr. Yao Obed Asamoah, once told Parliament he would never consider the repeal of criminal libel. "The appeal for the repeal of the law (of criminal libel) shall fall on deaf ears. I will not even consider it," he said. In a bizarre turnaround after his party lost, Dr. Asamoah admitted that the greatest mistake his government made was by antagonising the press.

In contrast, Nana Akkuffo-Addo, the NPP government's Attorney General, has repeatedly lent his support for the repeal of criminal libel. He was even a member of Friends of Freedom of Expression, an ad hoc committee of prominent Ghanaians who stood to oppose NDC's high handedness towards the media. Lawyer Akoto Ampaw, who has been at the forefront in the defence of journalists against criminal libel, is a member of Akuffo-Addo, Prempeh & Co, the private legal firm of Nana Addo, which has actively defended journalists against the avalanche of lawsuits instituted by NDC functionaries against the media. Nana Addo himself has appeared in a couple of cases for the media. The NPP will undermine their own credibility if they renege on their promise to review criminal libel.

If the NPP does not submit itself to infidelity, the well-known weakness of politicians, they should soon be submitting a proposal to Parliament in perhaps the biggest media engagement ever. Should that happen, journalists would be well advised not to expect too many gifts from the 92 NDC MP's in Parliament. How soon the president will initiate the formal moves to have parliament repeal the law is a matter for him to decide. Whatever route it takes, Ghanaian journalists are eagerly waiting to see whether president Kufuor and his party are the true liberal democrats their party's manifesto says they are.

Meanwhile the NPP government seems to be enjoying its honeymoon with the private media. Since assuming office, the office of the president has for the first time in 20 years, opened its doors to the private media. And a Minister of State has been appointed for media relations at the presidency. Allowing the critical private media access to the presidency is a novelty Ghanaian journalist could only dream of a few weeks back when media basher, ex-President Rawlings, occupied the Castle. Under Rawlings, the seat of government was a no go area for the private press who he accused of everything bad, including his last accident on the motor way investigations into which has caused the mysterious death in police cells, of a driver who was suspected to have caused it.

At state functions during the old order, speeches and documents were selectively given to state media journalists. Government functionaries did not care much about the private media. This is why the new administration's acceptance of the private media at the seat of power is most welcome to journalists. Now, all interested media houses will be allowed unimpeded access to the castle and other assignments the President undertakes. So far, the president's office is processing the "tenancy" application of about 20 media houses.

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