Ghana has maintained its 30th position out of 180 countries on the 2021 World Press Freedom Index.
The latest report by Reporters Without Borders saw Ghana’s ranking improve while its position remained the same as that of last year. This is the lowest the country has recorded since 2013.
The report referenced the failure of the authorities to investigate and prosecute persons involved in the gruesome killing of TigerEye PI’s Ahmed Suale after the production of the controversial ‘Number12’ investigative documentary on corruption in Ghana football as the reason why Ghana’s ranking did not improve.
Again, it said many cases of Police aggression against journalists have gone unpunished although “timid attempts have been made to combat this impunity. The report also said some journalists covering the effectiveness of government’s measures against COVID-19 were attacked by the Police in 2020.
Touching on the press freedom situation in Africa in general, the report mentioned that state-owned media continues to serve as propaganda tools of governments with no signs of being independent in the short term.
The report highlighted the fact that many governments are implementing new laws under the pretext of combating disinformation and hate speech but are actually means of gagging journalists.Despite the flaws in Ghana’s press freedom situation, it is among the few bright spots in Africa.
Ghana’s situation together with Burkina Faso, Namibia, South Africa and Botswana, were rated as “satisfactory”. The countries with the worst press freedom situation in Africa, according to the report are Libya, Somalia, Egypt, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea and Eritrea.
