World Press Freedom: A Drop In Ranking Had Been Anticipated – GJA President

The President of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA), Affail Monney has stated that Ghana’s decline in 2022 World Press Freedom was expected but never thought the drop will be severe as been projected by the release.

“Indeed, a drop in ranking had been anticipated due to a confluence of anti-media factors. But never did we expect the drop to be so precipitous- 3rd in Africa to 10th, and 30th in the world to 60th, a 100 per cent decline”.

According to him, the incessant attack and continuous arrest of journalists, toppled with death threats to these media men and women as security forces in the country stood aloof about the incident was nothing but an experience one can only watch with “shudder and heard with shiver”.

“We watched with shudder and heard with shiver, merciless arrests and reckless attacks and animalistic disregard for the rights of a number of journalists in the line of duty. The deterministic outcome has been a sharp deterioration of the safety of journalists. Death threats rained on investigative journalists also went uninvestigated, let alone punished, while law enforcement officers who were supposed to protect journalists rather brutalized them”.

He is therefore not surprised that Ghana has dropped from 3rd to 10th in Africa and from 30th ranking last year to 60th position this year due to the “anti-media factors” which have happened within the time frame.

Ghana was ranked 60 globally in the 2022 Press Index put together by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) compared to her previous performance in past years.

In 2021, the RSF report indicated that Ghana ranked 30 globally with a score of 78.67%.

In this year’s index, Ghana scored 67.43%.
African countries like Sierra Leone, South Africa, Gambia, etc, which Ghana was leading in terms of press Freedom, have overtaken Ghana in this year’s index.

Source: Opemsuo.com/ Emmanuel Owusu Anti