UN rapporteur issues positive but guarded assessment of Ghana press freedom

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression issued a nuanced assessment of Ghana’s press freedom environment on Tuesday, describing it as among the most open in West Africa while identifying ongoing concerns about the criminal defamation law, online harassment of journalists and the use of tax investigations to pressure critical media outlets.nnRapporteur Irene Khan, visiting Accra as part of an official country visit, met with journalists, media owners, civil society organisations, the National Media Commission and government ministers over five days. She said Ghana’s tradition of press freedom was genuine and deep-rooted but not without vulnerabilities.nn”Ghana is not a country where journalists disappear or newsrooms are shuttered by decree. But structural and legal tools exist that have a chilling effect on investigative journalism, and we see them used with a targeting pattern that cannot be dismissed as coincidence,” she told a press conference.nnThe rapporteur specifically called on Parliament to repeal Sections 112 and 114 of the Criminal Offences Act, which criminalise the publication of false news and seditious material and carry custodial sentences that she said had no place in a democratic legal order.nnThe government spokesperson said the administration was studying the rapporteur’s preliminary findings and would respond formally in writing, as is standard procedure. Communications Minister Owusu-Ekuful said the government had “the greatest respect for press freedom” and pointed to the administration’s record of not prosecuting any journalist during its current term.nnThe final report will be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in March. Ghana’s civil society coalition MFWA called for the government to accept all recommendations in full.