Be ashamed of yourself — ASEPA Boss blasts NMC Chairman for speaking against GJA's blacklist directive

The Executive Director of the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Mensah Thompson

The Executive Director of the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Mensah Thompson, has criticized Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo, Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), for his dissenting view on the directive issued by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to media houses to blacklist Members of Parliament accused of assaulting journalists.

The GJA's directive specifically targeted Members of Parliament of Awutu Senya East Hawa Koomson and Farouk Mahama of Yendi, both facing allegations of assaulting journalists.

In disagreement with what he described as a unilateral decision, Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo has labeled the directive as "dysfunctional and unproductive," advocating for legal avenues to address such incidents of impunity against journalists.

Mensah Thompson expressed his disappointment in Ayeboafo during an interview with Citi TV.

Thompson described the NMC Chairman as a failed journalist who has failed to fight assaults against journalists.

Thompson stated, "So you people, they are beating you, they are not paying you well, they are disrespecting you, you rise to the position when you can take decisions to protect your fellow members, look at the ridiculousness of the things he is saying."

Thompson went on to criticize the idea that journalists, who have been assaulted, should still offer their platforms to their attackers.

He said, "That I should sit down for somebody to come to my house, come and attack me, come and beat me to a pulp, the following day I should give the same person a platform to come and talk, according to this man, a former journalist, he should be ashamed of himself."