Kofi Assan, a reporter with privately-owned Accra-based radio station, Adom FM, was on November 19, 2012 arrested and detained by police officers drawn from the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service.
Assan was, however, released after spending a night in detention at the Accra Central Police Station. In an interview with the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Kojo Preko, station manager of Adom FM, said that the journalist was arrested while trying to cover a police arrest of a commercial vehicle driver for an alleged traffic offence at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra.
Assan, who was in the company of other colleague journalists had rushed to the scene of arrest which had attracted a large crowd, to see if he could obtain any information. But a police officer who saw his recorder drew the attention of the other officers, who bundled him into their vehicle and drove off,” the station manager said. According to Preko despite the presence of colleague-journalists at the police station and immediate telephone calls to Angwutogbe Awuni, Police MTTU Commander, the police refused to release the reporter the same day.
The MFWA questions how by going to the scene of an arrest with a recorder, a journalist must be arrested and detained and calls on the police authorities to acknowledge that the journalist had no intention of interfering in their work but to perform his journalistic duties.
For more information please contact :
Kwame Karikari (Prof)
Executive Director
MFWA
Accra
Tel: 233-30-22 4 24 70
Fax: 233-302-22 10 84
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Website: www.mediafound.org
