Accra, Ghana – Kwabena Boateng, the Member of Parliament for Ejisu, has strongly condemned the recent assault on a JoyNews journalist and his interviewee by a military officer. He described the incident as an attack on a fundamental pillar of democratic governance.
Mr. Boateng underscored the media’s constitutional role as the fourth estate of the realm. He argued that any assault on a journalist should be treated with the same gravity as an attack on any other branch of government.
“This democracy that we are practicing, without the media, I don’t know what we are doing with democracy,” he said. “If we sit in parliament and pass all the laws, the oversight, the Executive also does all that they have to do, and there is no what we have described as the fourth estate of the realm to take it out there to break it down for the consumption of the general public, then our democracy hasn’t come to where we expect it to be.”
He stressed, “So an assault on a journalist is like an assault on any arm of government, which shouldn’t be taken lightly.”
The MP warned that if such assaults are allowed to continue unchecked, it would undermine Ghana’s democratic credentials both at home and on the international stage. “Anybody observing internationally and sees that journalists have been beaten in a jurisdiction, obviously, what it means is that you are not serious about your democracy,” he added.
