Don’t sell yourself cheap – Kenneth Ashigbey to journalists

Former Chief Executive of Graphic Communications Group Limited, Kenneth Ashigbey, has admonished journalist to desist from selling themselves ‘cheap’ to perpetrators of abuse.

According to Kenneth Ashigbey, there is a lack of enthusiasm to seek justice in the court of law even through civil means on the part of journalists adding that reporters have a “penchant of settling criminal cases against us without any public record.”

Journalists in Ghana have had to experience various degrees of attacks in recent times with the latest incident being a reported case of assault and motor traffic accident involving a police officer and some journalists from Ghanaian Times.

Kenneth Ashigbey believed that a lot of the rampant physical abuses meted on journalists by security personnel, politicians and even the public would have perhaps, come to a stop if journalists speak up.

Citing an incident when he was head of Graphic, he recalled that, “When I was Chief Executive of Graphic I’m sure most of you would know that one of my journalist who was beaten up by somebody who calls himself a national football star and we all decided that this particular case, we were going to fight it. We (Graphic) got a Lawyer who had to sit in court to ensure that the right thing was being done. I left Accra, travelled to Kumasi by air, got to the court only to be told by the journalist in court that he was no more interested because his mother…”

While chastising journalists who go through the path of not seeking the appropriate form of justice and end up sweeping the case under the carpet, the CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications indicated that abuse cases on journalists will not have the needed attention if such lackadaisical attitude continues.



He adviced that even if journalists are not interested in pursuing a suit and would rather opt for an out of court settlement, they should insist on ensuring that the court is involved so that there will be a record of that and there will be a reprimand.

In his words, “I am urging all journalists that from now to go, let’s make sure that when these things happen let’s ensure that even if we want settlement, lets’ make sure we go to court and the court will order it. So that there is a public record of it”.



“…but when we do these things, and we hide in corners and we get these pittances that they give us, if you sell yourself cheap, they buy you with that.” He noted.