Criminalization of defamation and police arrests is unsustainable

The New Publisher adds its voice to the numerous calls against what seems to be a return of the criminalization of libel and a trend of arrests of persons who are suspected to have made malicious statements.

We support the statement issued by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), IMANI Africa, and Africa Center for International Law & Accountability (ACILA) that called on the Attorney General to “take steps to stop all persons acting under his authority from re-introducing in another guise the long-discredited and abolished criminal libel regime.”

We state on record that The New Publisher completely condemns the reckless and irresponsible conduct of some supposed media gate keepers and persons who get the opportunity to contribute to media discussions.

The sheer recklessness and continuous nature of the irresponsibly displayed by such characters is simply provocative, unacceptable and very shameful to say the least.

The paper is however of the view that police arrests and detention of such persons is not the best of strategies especially when as a country, we have abolished the Criminal Libel Law and agreed on accepted procedures of curing such mischief.

No person is above the law and a journalist, just like any other Ghanaian is not above arrest. The issue is that if we would applaud the state for arresting persons over defamatory statements and detaining such persons, how do we then explain the abolition of the Criminal Libel Law?

If the arrest of a journalist or any other person for that matter is for the reason that the person has engaged in conducts such as issuing threats, directly inciting people to break the law, engaging in acts of extorting and the likes, engaging in treasonable acts or such clearly defined criminalized conducts, no one, in his right senses, would complain over such an arrest.

But when the arrest is over libel or slander that damages the reputation of a person or a group of people, then the red flags would go up not because we support libel or slander but because those conducts are to be treated as civil cases and not criminal cases according to our laws.

Even the dramatic style of the arrests sometimes clouds the real substance of what exactly the offence is and who exactly the complainant may be.

We passionately call on the powers that be to give this new approach a second thought and whether this new found solution is worth the mischief it intends to cure.

Why would the persons whose reputations have been so defamed not take up civil procedures in our courts?

There are several examples where the Courts have handled such defamation cases and the persons who made the defamatory statements have been found guilty and asked to retract, apologize and compensate the victim.

It is time we put our political lenses aside and faced the facts on whether or not as a country, we have agreed and abolished the Criminal Libel Law.

If so, why is the police suddenly arresting and detaining people over libelous and slanderous comments.

This new style is not what we bargained for. How long can it be sustained and in whose interest?