[2016]DLSC2813 • July 27, 2016 • Supreme Court •
ABU RAMADAN AND EVANS NIMAKO vs. ELECTORAL COMMISSION AND THE ATTORNEY GENERAL IN RE: 1. THE OWNER OF THE STATION – MONTIE FM 2. SALIFU MAASE @ MUGABE 3. ALISTAIR NELSON 4. GODWIN AKO GUNN
The contemnors, including media personalities and the owner of Montie FM, were summoned for contempt of court following broadcasts that scandalized the judiciary by attacking the Chief Justice and the Supreme Court's impartiality in an electoral petition case. The broadcasts included threats and incitements to reject court decisions, undermining public confidence in the judiciary.
read moreOn 18th July, 2016, the court convicted the contemnors herein for contempt of court on their own pleas and adjourned to today for sentencing. As we have decided to invoke our undoubted powers to punish the contemnors for their contempt, we deem it necessary to explain the reasons for our decision. That will clarify for the contemnors, and in fact the general public and media owners and practitioners in particular, why they are being punished, in the hope and expectation that valuable lessons will be learnt by all, and this nation will be spared the recurrence of such reprehensible behavior, which bodes no one well. We are very mindful of the valuable role that the media, as the fourth estate of good governance, has to play in affording the citizenry and the state valuable information and fostering national discourse. However, to whom much has been given much is also expected and the constitutional freedoms and protections guaranteed to the media in Ghana are intended to be exercised a...