MPs can sue Africa Watch Magazine - Lawyer

A legal practitioner, Lawyer Kwame Boateng has said that MPs and politicians who feel aggrieved by the recent publication of the Africa Watch Magazine can go to court.

According to him, if the process of gathering information was found to be unfair and not objective and could tarnish the reputation of the MPs, the paper can be sued for defamation and made to pay compensation to the MPs.

The lawyer was reacting to the grievances of some MPs who raised concerns about the criteria used by the magazine in grading them.

The magazine’s assessment of MPs last year also triggered various reactions from the MPs.

In an interview with Adom News, Hon. Matthew Opoku Prempeh was very much displeased with the contents of the publication, saying he had no regard for it even though he was graded very high.

“I don’t support this publication. The works are false; there is no truth in it. I will neither be happy with the grades whether it is an A or F nor do I intend to argue about the ratings on any media platform,” he said.

Hon. Kwaku Agyenim-Boateng, who was graded F said “if they claim that the information is objective they should have contacted me but they did not. However, this will not prevent me from working hard in my constituency.”

The publishers of the magazine said the MPs appraisal was based on their performance in Parliament and not in their constituencies because they did not have enough resources and personnel to cover activities in their various constituencies.

When Adom News contacted the Africa Watch offices for further enquiries on how they gathered their data, a certain Serwaa who answered the call said they do not comment on their published reports.

Meanwhile, one Nana who later took over the phone gave an excuse that both editors, Steve Mallory and Rosemary Atiemo had travelled to New York and were not available to comment.

“Steve is not in town, he works at the New York office and Rosemary is also out of town. You can send our editor a quick mail and we will get back to you,” he said.

We later contacted their New York office and one Tom who answered said Steve was at home and Rosemary was in the Accra office, contrary to what the said Nana told Adom News from the Accra office.

“Rosemary is in the Accra office and Steve is at home so I will call Steve and give him your phone number and then I’ll have him call you back,” Tom said.