Sammy Gyamfi Exposes Akufo-Addo's Gov't Over Ghana's Sinking Press Freedom

Sammy Gyamfi, the National Communications Director of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has exposed Akufo-Addo’s government poor performance in maintaining Ghana’s position on the press freedom rankings which used to be number one in Africa under the previous Mahama Administration.

This comes after former President John Dramani Mahama on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day said during his Presidency, Ghana became the country with the highest levels of press freedom in Africa.” At the time, we were ranked number one out of 54 countries in Africa. We placed 23rd on the global ranking among 180 countries.

“Three and half years later, we have slumped seven places on the global ranking and lost the number one spot in Africa to Namibia and Cape Verde. We have unfortunately lost this priceless status that made all of us veryproud.”

The former President's statement did not go down well with some members of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) who have taken to social media to describe Mr. Mahama as a pathological liar.

But the NDC firebrand Sammy Gyamfi in his usual composure ridicules the Akufo-Addo’s government with facts and figures as evidence to back John Mahama’s statement on Ghana’s sinking image on world press freedom under President Akufo-Addo, who is globally touted as Human Rights Champion.

“This international disgrace has been occasioned by the gruesome murder of investigative Journalist, Ahmed Suale and government’s nonchalant posturing towards investigations into that heinous crime, the high-handed closure of radio stations and the harassment of journalists like Manesseh Azuri Awuni and Edward Adeti, under the watch of President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo who prides himself as a vainglorious paragon of free speech,” he stated.

Read full statement below:

Ghana’s Raw Scores under the World Press Freedom Index since its inception in the year 2013.

Folks, as we celebrate World Press Freedom Day, it’s important that we take stock of our performance under the World Press Freedom Index, compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders.

Note that the higher the score, the poorer one’s performance. See https://rsf.org/en/detailed-methodology

YEAR - SCORE

• 2013 - 17.27

• 2014 - 16.27

• 2015 - 15.50

• 2016 - 17.95

• 2017 - 17.95

• 2018 - 18.41

• 2019 - 20.81

• 2020 - 22.26

It can be gleaned from the above, that Ghana’s poorest score/performance under the World Press Freedom Index, is a score of 22.26, recorded this year, 2020, under the leadership of President William Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

This international disgrace has been occasioned by the gruesome murder of investigative Journalist, Ahmed Suale and government’s nonchalant posturing towards investigations into that heinous crime, the high-handed closure of radio stations and the harassment of journalists like Manasseh Azuri Awuni and Edward Adeti, under the watch of President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo who prides himself as a vainglorious paragon of free speech.

This is why President Akufo-Addo will go down as the worst-performing President in Ghana’s history relative to the protection of press freedom.

SAMMY GYAMFI Esq.