OPC Condemns Police Abuse of Ghana Radio Journalist

Overseas Press Club of America has written to the President of Ghana, John Evans Atta Mills to seek for redress in the case between James Donkor, a journalist with Radio Progress in Wa and the Wa Police.

Read Letter to President Mills

November 18, 2009

H.E. John Evans Atta Mills

President

Republic of Ghana

c/o Embassy of the Republic of Ghana 
3512 International Drive, NW 
Washington, DC 20008

Fax: (202) 686.4527

Your Excellency:

We write to let you know of our solidarity with James Donkor, a journalist with Radio Progress in Wa.

As you may know, Donkor was arrested on October 24.  According to his own testimony, Donkor was on a visit to the Wa Polytechnic when he saw a large crowd gathering outside.  He entered the crowd and saw a man tied to an electric pole.  On inquiring, he was told that the police had tied him there for “disrespecting” them.  Like the journalist he is, Donkor took a photograph.

For doing his job Donkor was hit, subjected to a body search and handcuffed.  He spent the next several hours in a police cell.  His private cell phones were seized, and one of them smashed, before he was finally released.

We can not help but see what happened to James Donkor in the light of what happened to our colleagues at Radio Gold FM last August, when three staff members were beaten in their offices.  According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the raid came after the station interviewed an activist for the ruling National Patriot’s Party who was accused of vote-rigging in local elections.  Police denied conducting a raid, saying they had simply visited the station after receiving a robbery report.

We are heartened to hear that in Donkor’s case, Mahmud Khalid, the regional minister, has condemned his mistreatment by local police and ordered an investigation. Ghana is now an exemplar of a modern African democracy, and Mahmud Khalid evidently knows that a free press is a guardian of a democratic nation’s truest values — free speech, free inquiry, free thought.

Respectfully yours,

Norman A. Schorr Kevin McDermott

Co-chairmen – Freedom of the Press Committee 
cc:

Mr. James Donkor

Radio Progress

Fax: (011.233.21) 75.62.20.89

Mr. Isaac Tetteh

Radio Gold FM

ike@ucomgh.com

Hon. Adolphus K. Arthur

Chargé d’Affaires

Embassy of the Republic of Ghana 
3512 International Drive, NW 
Washington, DC 20008

Fax: (202) 686.4527

Ambassador Leslie K. Christian

Permanent Representative

Permanent Mission of the Republic of Ghana to the United Nations

19 East 47th Street

New York, NY  10017

Fax: (212) 751.6743

H.E. Donald Teitelbaum

U.S. Ambassador to Ghana

Embassy of the United States of America

P. O. Box 194

Accra

Ghana

Fax: (011.233.21) 74.13.89

Ghana Journalists Association

P.O.Box 4636

Accra

Ghana

Fax: (011.233.21) 23.46.94

Media Foundation for West Africa  
P.O. Box LG 730  
30 Duade Street, Kokomlemle  
Legon, Accra  
Ghana  
alerts(@)mediafound.org
Fax: (011.233.21) 22.10.84

The Ghanaian Journal.Com 
samuel.ampah@gmail.com

Kofi Thompson 
Ghanapolitics

peakofi.thompson@gmail.com