Two Ghanaian journalists arrested and interrogated, one allegedly tortured, says CPJ

[New York] Ghana's Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice should immediately launch an independent investigation into the arrests of Modern Ghana editor Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri and reporter Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum by security forces.

On June 27, in Accra, the capital, Ministry of National Security officers arrested Abugri and Britwum at the offices of their employer, the privately owned news website Modern Ghana, interrogated them at Ministry of National Security offices, and confiscated their laptops and phones, according to Britwum, who spoke to CPJ over the phone, and local news reports.

 The officers questioned the journalists about Modern Ghana's recent reporting on National Security Minister Albert Kan Dapaah and accused them of obtaining information about Kan Dapaah by hacking an email account, Britwum said. Britwum told CPJ that the officers did not present a warrant at the time of their arrest.

Abugri told Ghanaian broadcaster Joy News and local news website Citi Newsroom that officers tied his hands, slapped him, and shocked him with a taser during his interrogation. The officers also made the journalists log in to their phones and computers and reviewed their files, Britwum told CPJ.

Britwum was released on June 28 and Abugri was released on June 29, Britwum said. He told CPJ that officers returned their phones but that their laptops remain in custody.

"The arrests of Emmanuel Abugri and Emmanuel Britwum, and Abugri's alleged torture at the hands of Ministry of National Security officers, is only the latest security service attack on journalists in Ghana," said Angela Quintal, CPJ's Africa program coordinator. "This dangerous pattern is made worse by the repeated failure to hold those responsible for attacks against the press to account. The Ghanaian Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice should take this case seriously and pursue justice for Britwum and Abugri."

Ghana's Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice is a presidentially appointed body tasked with investigating human rights violations and abuses of power, according to its founding charter.

The journalists' arrest came one day after Modern Ghana complied with a June 26 request from the Ministry of National Security to take down an article critical of Kan Dapaah published on the website on June 25, Britwum told CPJ.

On July 1, Ghanaian police summoned Abugri and Britwum to a local police station to give statements about the events surrounding their arrests, and the journalists were summoned again on July 2 and 3 for further questioning at the Police Criminal Investigations Department headquarters, according to Samson Lardi Anyenini, Ajafor's lawyer, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Also on July 1, Ghana's National Security Council Secretariat released a statement, which CPJ reviewed, stating that Abugri's allegations of torture were "false," that he was "never manhandled" during the interrogation, and saying that the journalists had been arrested for "engaging in cyber-crimes."

During his interrogation, Britwum told officers that he obtained information about Kan Dapaah from documents sent to an email address registered to local private radio broadcaster Peace FM, to which he had been granted access, Britwum told CPJ. Officers accused him of hacking the account, Britwum said.

On July 5, state prosecutors filed cybercrime charges against Britwum, Abugri, and Peace FM editor Yaw Obeng Manu for the alleged unlawful access of an email account, according to Anyenini.

Later that day, however, Senior State Attorney Stella Ohene Appiah and Accra High Court Justice Afia Asare Botwe dropped the charges against the journalists, according to Anyenini and a reportby Joy News.

According to reports by local news website Ghana Web, the Ghana Journalists Association, an independent professional association, and the OneGhana Movement, a local civil society group focused on promoting official accountability, have both called for an independent investigation into Abugri's alleged torture.

On July 8, Ghana police spokesperson David Eklu told CPJ over the phone that he was not aware of the specific details concerning Britwum and Abugri's arrests and questioning by Ministry of National Security officers, and said that the cybercrime investigation was transferred to the country's police.

CPJ's repeated calls to Kan Dapaah went unanswered. Eklu told CPJ that he was aware of the calls for an independent inquiry into the allegations of abuse by Ministry of National Security officers, but said he did not have any information on such an inquiry's likelihood.

Kan Dapaah was named as the head of Ghana's newly created National Security Ministry by President Nana Akufo-Addo in early 2017 with a mandate to increase security services' public accountability, according to media reports from the time. Nevertheless, investigations into attacks against journalists have lagged in recent years, according to CPJ research.

Why science journalism is societal necessity

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

 Journalist-Kenya

[NAIROBI] Many a times I have been asked about the viability of science journalism in Kenya and Africa at large from both journalists-the ones practicing it and journalists in other areas like business and politics-and folks outside the profession.

To many sceptics, science and its products like research, patents, innovations are not yet developed in Africa and could, therefore, offer very little for one to continuously put his skills and energy on as an area of coverage and also make a living out of it.

Out there, the continent could be well known for civil strife like in the Democratic Republic of Conge, Darfur in Sudan, Northern Uganda, mismanagement of public affairs at the highest levels of leadership like in Zimbabwe, corruption, the HIV/Aids scourge of which Sub-Saharan Africa is the global epicenter. Wow! The list is long-but not for scientific advancements in different spheres of life.

The sceptics are not entirely mistaken. True, Africa needs to build her own biological, physical and chemistry sciences and use that knowledge at all levels of life but that doesn’t mean there is nothing going on. Well, a lot in science and research is going on in Africa that remains very invisible. And a lot also needs to be done, still more, which is what makes science journalism even more imperative in Africa, and the rest of the developing world.

Little space for science news

But it isn’t easy to ply science journalism in this part of the world – Kenya and Africa at large. Most news channels — such as print, audio, visual and online — have very little space allocations for stories on environment and science topics. Worth noting is that most journalists in this segment are correspondences whose monthly monetary gains are pegged on the number of stories published, and very few successfully ‘compete’ for space.

This has in fact forced some to abandon science journalism and take to other areas of the profession that enjoys favours with chief gatekeepers of specific media establishments or opt for more sustaining areas outside the profession.

The research institutions and government departments makes life miserable for science journalists by the lack of well-defined infrastructure and policies that ensures fast and effective facilitation of the channeling out of information and within the shortest time possible given the high perishable nature of news. How many institutions are computerised and you could access information only at the touch of a mouse?

In the age of globalisation exacted upon us by the Information and Communication Technology wizardry, there is much new knowledge pouring from millions of research projects and studies around the world that push the boundaries of man’s knowledge to new heights, almost daily.

Making hard concepts easy

The changes are frequent and so specialised and difficult if not absolutely impossible for a lay person to understand. As long as science or scholarship remains enshrined in technical language and laden with heavy jargon it will need specially trained reporters who can communicate with scientists and help translate the new developments accurately and clearly for the less erudite readers who needs the information most to thrive-or try to-in their day-to-day lives.

For instance, reporting on a research project is quite often an assignment largely different from any other given to a journalist. He/she will face three challenges; the researcher[s], research project and the accurate and interesting interpreting of the project to the various publics. And such specialised trainings needed for a creditable job are very scarce for science journalists in Africa and most of the developing world.

The first audience of a journalist is the editor who he/she has to explain his storyline to hoping for a hearing and objective evaluation of the intended piece[s]. You will explain your lead, tie-back and additional features and details to the lead paragraph. But in most cases the editors’ themselves have scanty grasp of the various scientific issues unfolding in their societies and the world at large. They, therefore, become the bulwark against the practice of science journalism.

 “Necessary” cooperation scarcity

A problem facing most science journalist also involves the “necessary” cooperation of the scientists and some of their organisations with the media. Some are extremely sensitive to criticisms from the media; they often shun journalists and institutions decline to provide information needed for accurate and balanced reporting.

At the Land Ocean Interaction in the Coastal Zones [LOICZ] Open Science meeting in Egmond aan Zee in The Netherlands in 2005, a professor in coastal science, after listening to my presentation on The Media and Environmental Protection, declared it was not their duty to disseminate information but to do research and they have absolutely nothing to do with media. This clearly illustrates some of the dilemmas faced by science journalists all over the world.

The inability to make enough money from the practice of science journalism accounts for the dearth of what have become basic tools lack laptops among this lot of people. These are just but a few. The hurdles are many but despite these, science journalism still remains an exciting practice.

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