Punish those who assault journalists – MFWA Boss

Executive Director of the Media Foundation For West Africa (MFWA), Mr Sulemana Braimah, has asked the state to ensure that persons who attack journalists in the line of their duty are punished in accordance with the laws of the land.

He noted that Ghana has witnessed too many cases where journalists have been attacked and these cases go unattended to by the security agencies.

He cited the assassination of investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale and other journalists as examples of the cases that have gone unattended to by the state even though some efforts were made to apprehend the perpetrators of the crime.

Mr Braimah told TV3’s Komla Adom in an interview on Monday, November 2 that the impunity associated with these attacks have embolden others to also hit at practitioners at the slightest provocation.

He said “Impunity begets impunity, once people commit crimes and they go free it only emboldens them to commit more crimes and also emboldens others to think that as for a journalist if you are not happy with what they do you can just attack them.

“We have the police institution, the Executive which is headed by the president and other state institutions to ensure that justice is done.

“Anybody at all who commits a crime must be punished to ensure that we live in a society that is governed by law and by justice and not on the rule of power and the rule of those who have the strength

“It is unfortunate that as a country we continue to see the culture if impunity growing.”