IT IS to magnify the names of Haruna Atta and Kwaaku Baako Jr. and to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the incarceration of these two gentlemen that I take up my pen today.
Like September 11th in the lives of the people of the United States of America and June 4th in the lives of Ghanaians, I have made it a yearly ritual to write about what happened on 23rd July 1998 and warn journalists that the threat of press censorship in this country is real.
Whenever those in power believe they need to defend themselves against change and criticism, the persecution of men and women of letters is always a central component of oppression. Writing, however, is one of the noblest acts of liberty and the vehicle of this liberty is the word.
The right to free speech is central to our understanding of democracy. Opinions, assessments and convictions, analysis, demands and reflections, desires and dreams – all of these go to build the common house of society, the house we call “public opinion.”
Without freedom of speech, nothing changes; without freedom of expression there can be no social change, and development will be unthinkable.
Criticism is therefore the ship with which we can put some distance between ourselves and the mainland of the status quo. The freedom to express criticism is the hallmark of public opinion. Exercising it is the highest discipline in a free society.
So you see, it is for this reason that when those in power believe they need to defend themselves against change and criticism, they use the persecution of men and women of letters as a central component of oppression.
It is happening all over the world, including Ghana, where the current administration is so afraid of the power of the word that they have decided to go in for a colonial draconian law called “causing fear and panic” to put the fear of the Lord in the minds of inquisitive journalists.
Sadly for them, failure is staring them in the face. We in the inky fraternity have not been found wanting when it comes to defending our rights, even at the peril of death. The will is there.
All over the world, the inner experience of every honest writer, whose battle with words, his attempt to get close to reality, will always rob him of his illusions and his credulity – and reveal terrible things to him.
His writing makes him lonely, making it impossible for him to live in peaceful harmony with the conventions and prejudices of his times.
Gifted writers living in tyrannical societies are often exposed to real oppression. When things get tough, they are threatened with persecution, exile, imprisonment and torture – sometimes, even death.
I want to believe that we are gradually moving towards that direction since the NDC took over power. I have lost count of the number of threatening text messages I have read on my cell phone.
On our airwaves, verbal terrorists have virtually taken over as they daily bombard perceived 'against' journalists with unprintable words and threats of death. I have also lost count of the number of FM stations attacked by NDC hooligans.
Times are hard for journalists in God's own country and only time will tell when some of us will be mowed down with an AK 47 assault rifle by assassins hired by the powers that be to silence critics.
But should this looming threat cow us into quietude? Words themselves often become the target of rulers' aggression. Books are burnt, newspapers banned, texts indexed or censored.
Frequently, however, those who feel threatened by free speech prefer to take direct action. Because their power is built on serfdom, injustice and despotism, they persecute not only the words but they also go for the bearers of the word: authors, journalists, publishers, writers, and newspaper and radio people.
We lived under these conditions for eleven years under the PNDC regime, but by the grace of God we were able to wean and uncoil ourselves from this madness.
Sadly, as we are trudging on after licking our wounds, the Mills' administration is introducing the wish-to-be-forgotten Culture of Silence.
Did we come this far to suffer? Is president Mills the man of peace that he says he is? In fact, is he aware of the ongoing persecutions?
You see, my dear reader, the men who order and supervise this shameful game, this insidious farce, are afraid of the free word.
They fear the power of ideas, the power of the pen, the demand for social justice and human rights. In fact, they are so afraid of the power of words that they never read. Not reading itself makes you stupid, docile, ignorant and often brutal.
Of course, this does not mean that every word or all writing exerts this liberating power, no matter what the content. I must admit that words can have a demonic side to them too.
They cannot only convince you; they can also lead you astray and can be full of deception instead of enlightenment. However, this is not characteristic of freedom in the true sense of the word.
The manipulation of words and facts always causes or intensifies other people's lack of freedom. That is why some of us always frown against those who write to incite racial or tribal violence.
The other day, Darkwa was seized from a radio station and arranged before court for saying Rawlings burnt his own house. Then Ato Kwamena Dadzie was slapped with a court sermon and the Editor of the Ghanaian Times is being haunted by the powers that be.
Who knows, tomorrow it will be the turn of your Earth Angel Gabriel, one of the bearers of the word.
But who will like to kill an Angel and make a martyr of him? Unless that person has madness in his stomach, no one will ever think of such an abominable act, knowing very well that there are millions of Angels up there in the firmament to defend this particular Angel and senior messenger of God.
Be that as it may, there is no gainsaying that unto us is come the season and the fullness of time when we must set down in truth the affairs of state.
The risk is high and death will be on the prowl, looking for bearers of the word to devour.
Research indicated that worldwide, about one thousand writers and journalists are languishing in jail because they write what they think and for insisting on their right to put their opinions into writing.
Similarly, more than two hundred journalists are killed yearly, either at the war front or simply poisoned. Journalists seem to be endangered species in these modern times.
It is the then NDC led government which vigorously pursued the implementation of the Criminal Libel Law to the letter.
Images of Haruna Atta and Kwaku Baako Jnr in handcuffs and being marched to prison are still etched in our collective memory. In fact, we still remember the treatment meted out to Thommy Thompson and George Nankeney which led to their untimely death in prison.
These and many more are memories which will forever remind us to be extra vigilant, now that the NDC is in power again.
When the then Chairman of the NDC and Attorney General, Obed Yao Asamoah, told us that the Criminal Libel Law could be repealed over his dead body, we prayed for a saviour to come to our rescue.
Thankfully, the good people of this country voted for the New Patriotic Party to come to power. The first campaign promise to be kept was the repeal of this damned law.
Today, now that the NDC is back in power, they have taken time to fish out yet another law with the intention of sending people to jail and silencing critics.
As a layman in law, I did not know anything about “causing fear and panic” and its associated criminality until the NDC came to power.
When Mr. Rawlings said he knew fifteen cabinet members of the Kufuor regime who participated in the murder of about thirty-five women in the national capital, was he not causing fear and panic?
What did the police do to Mr. Asiedu Nketia when he went on air at Radio Gold and charged NDC supports to arm themselves and protect the station because according to him, the NPP had the intention to rig the elections? Probably that could be described as “causing happiness and joy.”
IGP Quaye is a fine gentleman and police officer but sadly he has allowed himself to be misused by politicians who seem to have lost touch with realities on the ground.
If this gentleman has been charged to use whatever means to subdue critics of the regime, then he is bound to fail because some of us will never waver. Parade attention: Chest out, Chief Constable Quaye!!! “Those who bear the word experience hell as a result” – Arthur Koestler (German Writer)
Source: Daily Guide/Ghana
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