Osahen Afenyo-Markin warns against return to culture of silence, calls for protection of media freedom

Minority Leader and Effutu MP Alexander Afenyo-Markin has cautioned against what he describes as the shrinking space for free expression in Ghana, urging authorities to protect journalists and citizens from intimidation over their views.

He said democracy must go beyond the existence of media organisations and social media platforms to guarantee citizens the freedom to speak without fear and journalists the ability to investigate without intimidation.

Speaking at the 30th Ghana Journalists Awards in Accra on Saturday, November 7, he cautioned against a return to a culture in which legitimate criticism of those in power is suppressed.

“We must do everything to resist any return to a culture of silence,” he said.

Osahen Afenyo-Markin argued that a functioning democracy must allow opposition politicians to criticise the government without being treated as enemies of the state.

He also questioned the use of criminal law against people for expressing their views.

He drew on the writings of Ghana's former Prime Minister, Professor Kofi Abrefa Busia, who warned in 1965 that suppressing legitimate channels of opposition could have serious consequences for the country's democratic development.

According to the Minority Leader, Busia understood that development without liberty was incomplete, stressing that economic progress could not substitute for the fundamental freedoms of speech, association and assembly.

He further recalled former President John Agyekum Kufuor's 2001 State of the Nation Address, in which he pledged to expand freedom of expression by repealing laws criminalising speech.

Osahen Afenyo-Markin said the subsequent repeal of the criminal libel and sedition laws was a significant step towards strengthening Ghana's democracy and liberating the media landscape.

The Effutu MP stressed that freedom and responsibility must work together, particularly in the digital age, where the media must balance the exercise of press freedom with the need to combat hate speech.

“Silence protects the comfortable and abandons the vulnerable,” he said.

The 30th Ghana Journalists Awards was held under the theme, “Celebrating excellence, advancing media freedom and combating hate speech in the digital age.”