Insults, 'unnecessary' generalization can land you in trouble - Prosper Harrison Addo to journalist

The General Secretary of the Ghana Football Association, Prosper Harrison Addo has cautioned Ghanaian journalists, particularly sports journalists against making statements and publications that could land them in defamation suits.

According the legal practitioner, journalists stand the risk of being sued if they make ‘unfair’ generalizations and pronouncements that in a away impugn and denigrate an individual or group.

Making a presentation at the Accra edition of the Betway Writers Conference, Prosper Addo cited a number of instances with the tendency of landing a journalist in a legal battle.

“Some stereotyping can lead to defamation. You can’t insult a community. So lets watch it. You can’t say ‘Kotoko fuo nyinaa’, last I heard someone say ‘na Exco fuo no omo dwen’. That’s pure defamation and the whole thing started with one Exco member”.

“On copyright, you have the right to your work. So cameraman you take a picture, we all assume it’s your work but there are instances where you may not be the sole owner, you’ll be a co-owner. Startimes for instance are owners of the footages they take but they are not the sole owners. The original owner is the GFA”, he said.

The Betway Sports Writers conference sets out to equip sports journalists with knowledge in live sports broadcasting, pre-game analysis, conducting post and pre-game interviews as well as bringing them up to speed with global sports broadcasting standards.

Explaining to ghanaweb.com the rationale behind the conference, the Country Manager of Betway, Kwabena Oppong Nkrumah remarked that the initiative is another demonstration of Betway’s dedication to the growth of Ghana sports.

“Since Betway launched in Ghana, we’ve been very focused on sports development and how we can contribute to it as a brand. We’ve done the talent search and thought leadership conference. We believe that one critical part of it is our media people who amplify our league and project it for the world to see. So it is important that as a company that is invested in this industry, we would collaborate and bring them together to share and practice new methods”