The Founder and General Overseer of the Royalhouse Chapel International, Apostle General, Most Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah, has condemned the harassment of journalists by the security agencies in the country.
“We do not support the harassment of journalists who are doing their work to speak truth to power and call power to account,” he stated.
Rev Ankrah said this when a presenter of Accra FM, Kwabena Bobbie Ansah, and the Executive Director of the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Thompson Mensah joined the church on Sunday, February 13, 2022, to thank God for their release.
The two were recently arrested for false news publications.
“In Royalhouse Chapel you have faithful partners in the liberty of journalism and reportage in Ghana,” Rev Ankrah told the duo.
It is not going to be an assignment of journalists and the courts only but of every citizen of this nation,” he said.
Adding his voice to the several calls for the use of the courts for redress in matters such as false news publication, the Apostle General said the police investigations were unnecessary.
Rev Ankrah also used the opportunity to call for forgiveness for the two, saying, “let us learn to forgive those who are always on the microphone. The one who goes to the stream to fetch water is the one who gets wet. Within the spur of the moment, we say things that we should not say, but when you are emotionally charged, it happens.”
He further noted that journalists sometimes find themselves in trouble for things they say and write but that should not be used to condemn the profession in its entirety.
He added that “It is the hazards of the work. We should learn to forgive and tolerate them and look at the work that they do for the common good of society and not the small mistakes that they commit.”
Rev Ankrah, therefore, apologised on their behalf to anyone who had been offended by their reportage and prayed for the duo.
One Response
Rev., I think you as a man of God should have also advised the jounalits to be truthful in their reportage, and not to use their pens and microphones to insult and defame others. There are hundreds or thousands of journalists in this country. How many of them have been arrested that you call it harassment.
The police also have a duty to protect the citizenry. You should rather encourage them to work without fear or favour, and pray for forgiveness when they fault in the course of their work. I encourage you to be fair in your wor as a man of God, and not to be tooooo partisan for you have members of all political parties in your church, or?