PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
MFWA condemns attack on newspaper in Ghana
Banjul, Gambia (PANA) – The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) on Saturday condemned an attack on the office of Daily Guide newspaper in Ghana as “an attempt to gag the media house.”
“We urge the police to spare no effort in tracking down and bringing to book all the perpetrators of the shameful attack,” the media freedom watchdog said in a statement obtained by PANA.
According to MFWA, a group of irate youth attacked the regional office of one of Ghana’s most influential private newspapers, Daily Guide, in the country’s second largest city, Kumasi, over publications carried by the newspaper about a highly respected traditional ruler.
It said the group calling itself Kumasi Youth Association (KuYA), on 18 October 2017, disrupted work by locking up at the offices of the newspaper located on the top floor of a three-storey building situated in the heart of Kumasi.
The thugs demanded an apology from the newspaper and threatened to close down the office permanently if the editors did not retract what the KuYA considered as offensive reportage about Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the revered king of the Ashantis, Ghana’s biggest ethnic group.
MFWA pointed out that The Daily Guide was among several Ghanaian media outlets which reported the dismissal of a staff of the Ghana International Bank in London over a transaction he had made on behalf of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, allegedly, in breach of internal rules. The story was reportedly first broken by the UK’s Daily Telegraph.
According to the statement, the thugs left behind printed notes and threatening graffiti on the walls of the building, one of which read, “Be warned Daily Guide.”
Meanwhile, the police have reopened the besieged offices by removing the foreign locks fixed by the assailants and invited the culprits to report themselves to avoid being hounded out.
-0- PANA MLJ/AR 21Oct2017
“We urge the police to spare no effort in tracking down and bringing to book all the perpetrators of the shameful attack,” the media freedom watchdog said in a statement obtained by PANA.
According to MFWA, a group of irate youth attacked the regional office of one of Ghana’s most influential private newspapers, Daily Guide, in the country’s second largest city, Kumasi, over publications carried by the newspaper about a highly respected traditional ruler.
It said the group calling itself Kumasi Youth Association (KuYA), on 18 October 2017, disrupted work by locking up at the offices of the newspaper located on the top floor of a three-storey building situated in the heart of Kumasi.
The thugs demanded an apology from the newspaper and threatened to close down the office permanently if the editors did not retract what the KuYA considered as offensive reportage about Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the revered king of the Ashantis, Ghana’s biggest ethnic group.
MFWA pointed out that The Daily Guide was among several Ghanaian media outlets which reported the dismissal of a staff of the Ghana International Bank in London over a transaction he had made on behalf of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, allegedly, in breach of internal rules. The story was reportedly first broken by the UK’s Daily Telegraph.
According to the statement, the thugs left behind printed notes and threatening graffiti on the walls of the building, one of which read, “Be warned Daily Guide.”
Meanwhile, the police have reopened the besieged offices by removing the foreign locks fixed by the assailants and invited the culprits to report themselves to avoid being hounded out.
-0- PANA MLJ/AR 21Oct2017
