Media Watchdog directs Despatch to apologise to Selormey

The National Media Commission (NMC) on Tuesday directed Mr Ben Ephson, Editor of the Dispatch, to apologise to Mr Victor Selormey, former Deputy Minister of Finance, in respect of two publications of July 6-15 with headline: "Selormey in another 2.8 billion-cedi deal" and "Ex-NDC Minister arrested with $I.5 million cash."

According to a statement issued by the NMC in Accra the said publication stated among others that security agents on the tarmac of the Kotoka International Airport arrested Mr. Selormey on his return trip to the US on Sunday, April 15, 2001 to retrieve 1.5 million dollars cash, which he had carried from Ghana to deposit in a US bank, but could not succeed, owing to the stringent banking regulation of that country.

The statement noted that in his evidence before the Commission, Mr. Ephson conceded that the allegations as contained in the publications were not true, and it had since then retracted the story. The commission therefore, directed that he re-published the said retraction, rendered an unqualified apology to Mr. Selormey within 14 days