Judge condemns unsavoury media comments on rulings, April 9, 2011, front page
A Supreme Court judge, Mrs Justice Sophia O. Adinyira, has described some media comments and public debate on rulings by judges as sweeping, unsavoury and unwarranted.
The Judiciary, she stated, welcomed academic criticisms and reviews of its judgements, as they were good for the development of the country’s jurisprudence and would also make the Judiciary accountable.
some supreme court judges (left) Justice Adinyira (top)
“Though our 1992 Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and expression and the freedom and independence of the media, there are some limitations on the expression of these freedoms in the interest of national security, public order, public morality and for the purpose of protecting the reputations and rights and freedoms of other persons,” Mrs Justice Adinyira said when she swore in Mr Anthony Kodjo Batse, a government representative on the National Media Commission (NMC).
The judge’s comment comes on the heels of recent criticisms and demonstrations that followed the acquittal and discharge of 15 people accused of conspiring to murder the Overlord of Dagbon, Ya Na Yakubu Andani II, in March 2002.
Mr Batse, who is the acting Vice-Rector of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), replaces Mr Samuel Appiah Ampofo, whose appointment has been withdrawn by the President.
Mrs Justice Adinyira said the attacks on judges were often borne out of misinformation or ignorance and, therefore, urged journalists who had been called to the bar “to take up reporting and reviewing our decisions for the edification of the public”.
She urged members of the NMC not to wait for complaints to be made against the media before taking action in situations which obviously needed the intervention of the commission.
“At times some newspapers merely sell headlines, without providing the public with any news or information, while some newspapers and radio stations only carry misinformation and half truths,” she said, adding that the Ghanaian public was calling on the NMC to sanitise the media.
Mrs Justice Adinyira urged the NMC not to relent in its efforts at maintaining the highest journalistic standards, even in the face of accusations of censorship from the media or allegations of the over-protection of the media being levelled against the NMC by the public.
The Chairman of the NMC, Ambassador Kabral Blay-Amihere, said the commission remained committed to and very conscious of its constitutional mandate to promote not only a free but also responsible press.
He, however, stated that efforts to achieve that objective were being undermined by inadequate resources.
“Regrettably, I must report that the NMC in its present working state cannot adequately deliver on some of its mandate. The NMC, from its beginnings to date, has not been equipped and provided with the necessary logistics to work with, as stated in Article 167(b),” he said.
The commission, he said, was “the least resourced of all the governance institutions and yet it must supervise an institution, the media, the Fourth Estate of the Realm, from whom so much is expected, a vital institution which has every potential to keep or break the state of our union”.
The Judiciary, she stated, welcomed academic criticisms and reviews of its judgements, as they were good for the development of the country’s jurisprudence and would also make the Judiciary accountable.
“Though our 1992 Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and expression and the freedom and independence of the media, there are some limitations on the expression of these freedoms in the interest of national security, public order, public morality and for the purpose of protecting the reputations and rights and freedoms of other persons,” Mrs Justice Adinyira said when she swore in Mr Anthony Kodjo Batse, a government representative on the National Media Commission (NMC).
The judge’s comment comes on the heels of recent criticisms and demonstrations that followed the acquittal and discharge of 15 people accused of conspiring to murder the Overlord of Dagbon, Ya Na Yakubu Andani II, in March 2002.
Mr Batse, who is the acting Vice-Rector of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), replaces Mr Samuel Appiah Ampofo, whose appointment has been withdrawn by the President.
Mrs Justice Adinyira said the attacks on judges were often borne out of misinformation or ignorance and, therefore, urged journalists who had been called to the bar “to take up reporting and reviewing our decisions for the edification of the public”.
She urged members of the NMC not to wait for complaints to be made against the media before taking action in situations which obviously needed the intervention of the commission.
“At times some newspapers merely sell headlines, without providing the public with any news or information, while some newspapers and radio stations only carry misinformation and half truths,” she said, adding that the Ghanaian public was calling on the NMC to sanitise the media.
Mrs Justice Adinyira urged the NMC not to relent in its efforts at maintaining the highest journalistic standards, even in the face of accusations of censorship from the media or allegations of the over-protection of the media being levelled against the NMC by the public.
The Chairman of the NMC, Ambassador Kabral Blay-Amihere, said the commission remained committed to and very conscious of its constitutional mandate to promote not only a free but also responsible press.
He, however, stated that efforts to achieve that objective were being undermined by inadequate resources.
“Regrettably, I must report that the NMC in its present working state cannot adequately deliver on some of its mandate. The NMC, from its beginnings to date, has not been equipped and provided with the necessary logistics to work with, as stated in Article 167(b),” he said.
The commission, he said, was “the least resourced of all the governance institutions and yet it must supervise an institution, the media, the Fourth Estate of the Realm, from whom so much is expected, a vital institution which has every potential to keep or break the state of our union”.
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