1,341
The Second Vice Chairman for Suame Constituency of New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Richard Akwasi Asante, has described it as laughable the hypocritical stand by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to fight for press freedom in the country. Leaders of the NDC, he said, have no moral justification to claim same since most media practitioners were manhandled in and outside Ghana under the watch of both Former Presidents, Jerry John Rawlings and John Dramani Mahama. Speaking to the media, Mr Asante regretted that the leaders of the ‘Kum Yen Preko’ demonstration,which he described as baseless and worthless, accused government of abusing the freedom of the press. According to him, during the tenure of Former President John Dramani Mahama, a media practitioner who worked with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), was subjected to severe beatings by a Former Presidential Staffer, Stan Dogbe. The same Staffer, Mr Asante , said maltreated a foreign journalist when Former President Mahama travelled outside Ghana. He said the leadership of NDC and Former President Mahama supported such maltreatment and never rebuked Stan Dogbe. The Vice Chairman, who is a Former Media Practitioner, disclosed that during the regime of Former President Jerry John Rawlings, most journalists suffered under the criminal libel law which deterred others from practising the profession. According to him, Former President John Agyekum Kufuor, realised the need to ensure an absolute press freedom by repealing the criminal libel law . Mr Asante therefore assured media practitioners of government’s preparedness to put in place effective mechanisms to protect the press freedom as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.Source :broadcastergh.com /Ayisah Foster 
