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General News of Friday, 24 April 2020

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Information Ministry reprimanded for gross insincerity

Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah

An attempt by the Ministry of Information to discredit a publication by 3news.com reproduced on Ghanaweb.com has been vehemently criticized by some Ghanaians who were witnesses to the incident reported by the portals.

The said publication made at 7:49 am on Friday, April 24 with the headline ‘Relevant data wiped off from Ghana’s Coronavirus official website’ stated that the government had wiped off relevant information on Ghana’s coronavirus situation from the official website launched to update Ghanaians on the outbreak of the virus which has so far infected over 1,000 people.

The development came two days after widespread claims that the government has been massaging the release of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country.

The homepage which sits on the Ghana Health Service official website, had been wiped almost clean with only the total number of confirmed cases in the country showing. Prior to Thursday, it had relevant information including the graphical and geographical breakdown of the cases as recorded in all affected regions. It also had statistics and data regarding which age group and gender is mostly being affected.

A tweet from the Information Ministry, Friday, however, described the publication as false, asking the public to disregard it. The tweet was made few minutes after the Ghana Health Service website was updated with figures of Ghana’s situation as regards the pandemic. It was evident the website had a completely new outlook; one more engaging and with clearer details.

“This story by Ghanaweb is false. All previous updates of the Ghana Health Service on COVID-19 are accessible on the organization’s website,” the ministry’s tweet read.

But tweeps in their replies suggested to the ministry to not distort facts because they also could not access the information as reported by 3news.com and Ghanaweb.com.

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