According to the poll, 70% of practitioners knew colleagues who were victims of assaults.
Dr. Abena Animwaa Yeboah-Banin, Senior Lecturer at the Communications School, stated on February 13 that this has caused dread among journalists in the line of duty.
“At least some 38 per cent of those who have been sampled experienced attack in their line of work. An even bigger number, nearly 70 per cent of those sampled said they were aware of colleagues who have experienced attacks in the line of work.
“Altogether, therefore, quite a good number expressed feelings of insecurity they generally felt unsafe doing the work of journalists in the country,” she said.
Dr Yeboah-Banin expressed worry that the number of attacks on journalists was double with no mechanisms in place to address the issue.
“Report after report has suggested that the rate of attacks on journalists for doing their work, the rates are increasing but the actions that you would see to make a statement to perpetrators, that this will not be countenanced, such an action does not seem to be as swift or even existent in quite a number of instances,” she bemoaned.
Her remarks come after recent attacks on journalists by politicians and their followers, Mohammed Aminu Alabira, Citi FM’s Northern regional journalist, was reportedly assaulted by Farouk Aliu Mahama, the Member of Parliament for Yendi Constituency, while reporting the NPP’s parliamentary primary.
In addition, individuals suspected of supporting Mavis Hawa Koomson, MP for the Awutu Senya East Constituency, have been accused of assaulting a journalist in the Central area.
The Ghana Journalists Association then called for a media embargo on legislators.
Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Information Minister, welcomed these comments and asked the GJA to put more pressure on the Ghana Police Service and the judiciary to appropriately address incidences of journalist attacks in the country.
