The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) and the Private Newspaper and Online Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) have stated that the fines imposed on attackers of UTV during one of their live shows are not deterrent enough.
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, during United Television’s (UTV’s) prime-time entertainment show, “United Showbiz”, some activists of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) invaded the studio of UTV, disrupting the live programme, assaulting two (2) employees of the station and further threatening to assault the hostess and guests on the show.
The culprits were arrested and sent to the Achimota District Court and prosecuted for attacking the studios of UTV.
On Monday, October 16, 2023, the hooligans were charged with the offence of “conspiracy to commit crime and rioting” and arraigned before the Achimota District Court, which found them guilty of the offence.
Speaking at a joint press conference held by the three above institutions, GJA President, Mr Albert Kwabena Dwumfour commended the Police and the Court for the speedy prosecution and conviction it demanded in the wake of the attack.
He said in a similar case in respect of an attack on Dagbon Radio in Tamale in early May this year, the Police and the Tamale District Court had prosecuted and determined the case speedily.
However, whilst commending the Police and the Court for the speedy prosecution and conviction, Mr Dwumfour said the three institutions were of the opinion that under the circumstances, and based on video evidence of the happenings on that fateful evening, the charges proffered against them were not far-reaching because their actions should have resulted in the investigation and attraction of the following charges including unlawful entry, Rioting, Rioting with weapons, Assault and Battery, Causing harm, Threat of harm Unlawful assembly, Offensive conduct conducive to breach of the peace Forcible entry and Allegedly carrying offensive weapons.
He said the charges of “Conspiracy to commit crime and rioting” in their opinion are inadequate, soft-handed, and minimalistic.
“We acknowledge that the judge has the discretion of either imposing a custodial sentence or fine, which is also a form of punishment under our criminal jurisprudence, which may have informed the magistrate to opt for the imposition of a fine. It is our view that the option of fine imposed is not deterrent enough,” he added.
He was also of the view that the fine was not hard enough because the charges proffered by the Police were not thorough enough.
“We believe if all the offences mentioned above had been investigated and preferred against the thugs, stiffer punishments would have been imposed on them than the fine of 200 penalty units each,” he said.
The GJA President continued that, “We appeal to the judiciary to consider offences against the media as aggravating offenses, especially when these actions are premeditated, because such actions have the tendency to put fear in the media leading to self-censorship and thus promoting the culture of silence which is inimical to the concept of media freedom and independence as guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.”
He said the media fraternity has been vindicated on its position that what happened on that fateful evening was reprehensible, to say the least.
“At this stage, the leadership of all media Associations are aware that the options available to us is to consider supporting our affected members to either urge the prosecution to consider appealing against the sentence or criticize the decision,” He said.
Mr Dwumfour also noted that the institutions have referred the matter to its lawyers for advice on the way forward.
“The Court has spoken and we as law-abiding citizens, accept the decision of the court believing that this will serve as a signal to all and sundry that never again should anybody attempt to attack a media practitioner or a media organization for whatever reason since there are laid down procedures for seeking redress in the event of media breaches,” he said.
The three institutions therefore appealed to the judiciary to consider offences against the media as aggravating offenses, especially when these actions are premeditated, because such actions have the tendency to put fear in the media leading to self-censorship and thus promoting the culture of silence which is inimical to the concept of media freedom and independence as guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.
