Radio Reporter Brutalized

PRESS RELEASE April 26, 2005

On 21 April 2005, Emmanuel Duah, a reporter with the privately-owned radio station Happy FM, was beaten with clubs and stones while covering a by-election in Aboabo-Adukrom, in Ghana's Ashanti region, about 270 kilometres from the capital, Accra.

Duah's assailants beat him until he fell unconscious. He was rushed to City hospital, where he has since regained consciousness and is being treated for his injuries.

According to MFWA-Accra sources, the reporter's assailants mistook him to be a sympathizer of one of the two major political parties contesting the by-election. They attacked him with knives, stones and sticks.

Recounting his experience, Duah said that prior to the attack there were reports of fighting and gunshots in the area, and he went to investigate. "After getting [out of] the car, I tried to see what was happening," he said. At that point, the reporter saw people running in several directions and he was subsequently attacked.

MORE INFORMATION:

For further information, contact Jeannette Quarcoopome, Media Foundation for West Africa, P.O. Box LG 730, Legon, Ghana, tel.: +233 21 24 24 70, fax: +231 21 22 10 84, e-mail: [email protected], Internet: http://www.mfwaonline.org