Ghana must probe state agents’ attack on photographer

14 January, 2012

 

Mr.John Atta Mills

President of Ghana

Information Services Department

P.O. Box 745,

Accra.

Tel – (+233-302) 228054

Tel – (+233-302) 228011

E-mail: contact@presidency.gov.gh

 

Re: Ghana must probe state agents' attack on photographer

Dear President of Ghana,

I am sharing my deepest concern as for the state security agents on Thursday brutalized a photojournalist covering the high-profile court case of a senior police official.

The private Daily Guide reported that several plainclothes agents of the Bureau of National Investigations pounced on Gifty Lawson outside a courtroom in the capital, Accra, after she attempted to take photographs of Deputy Superintendent of Police Gifty Mawuenyaga Tehoba. The police official–held by the bureau since December 29 on suspicion of cocaine smuggling but without formal charge–had appeared at a habeas corpus hearing ordered by Ghana's human rights court, according to news reports.

The agents smashed Lawson's camera, beat her, ripped her clothes, and stripped her to her underwear apparently in search of memory cards, Daily Guide Editor Fortune Alimi told CPJ. The agents also assaulted Daily Guide staffers Anthony Antwi and Michael Awampaga and briefly detained Lawson and Awampaga, according to news reports. The episode was witnessed by bystanders.

In an interview today with private station Joy FM, National Security Coordinator Larry Gbevlo-Lartey denied any journalist was attacked and accused Daily Guide journalists of obstructing the work of the bureau agents. "Someone who was accompanying a journalist had slapped a security official and we are handling that," he was quoted as saying. "We are not going to take any indiscipline from any member of the public. It doesn't matter who he is in preventing the BNI from doing their job."

I am alarmed by the reported attack on Gifty Lawson and by the reaction of the national security coordinator toward it.  The authorities in Ghana must conduct an immediate inquiry independent of the Bureau of National Investigations and bring those responsible to justice.

I thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely yours,

William Nicholas Gomes

William's Desk

www.williamgomes.org

 http://www.williamgomes.org/?p=318

 

 

--
William Nicholas Gomes
Journalist & Human Rights Activist
80/ B Bramon Chiron, Saydabad,
Dhaka-1203, Bangladesh.
Cell: +88 019 7 444 0 666
E-mail:William [at] williamgomes.org,editorbd[at]gmail.com
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Web site :www.williamgomes.org

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