The host of ‘Asempa Yetia’ on Power 97.9 FM, Okatakyie Kwame Afrifa Mensah, has criticized investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni for complaining about the safety of journalists in Ghana in recent times.
“Under the John Mahama administration, you were writing anyhow and criticized the government. He even started a column called ‘Masseh’s Folder’ where he attacked the Mahama administration and later said the president had taken a second-hand Ford [Expedition] vehicle thinking that Akufo-Addo would be a good president,” Okatakyie said.
The 2011 Ghana Journalist Association’s Journalist of the Year on Wednesday started a campaign against the Akufo-Addo administration, describing it as intolerant and hostile against critical journalists in the country.
Awuni, a media campaigner for Press Freedom, believes President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is not speaking up against threats against media freedom and that he is not safe in the country following some investigative works he had done that indict some persons in the government.
Manasseh Awuni
In a Facebook post to commemorate world press Freedom Day, the award-winning investigative journalist said he did ” some of the most daring works” during the regime of former president John Mahama but never feared for his life as it is today under Akufo-Addo.
“The danger is real,” Awuni said following the threats on his life from people suspected to be aligned with the Akufo-Addo government.
But Okatakyie says he is happy Manasseh is reaping the fruits of what he sowed to spite John Mahama.
Condemning the Akufo-Addo government for intolerance, Okatakyie said Manasseh helped Akufo-Addo by “whitewashing him to Ghanaians” so it is good the same people he strategically helped win power are coming after his life after exposing them in his works.
“Today Akufo-Addo has turned Manasseh into a fact-checker instead of an investigative journalist. Today, Manasseh’s folder is wet so he can’t write and criticize him again,” he argued on his program, Asempa Yetia on Power FM Wednesday night.
The latest report by Journalists Without Borders has placed Ghana in the 60th position out of 180 countries and 10th in Africa for this year, in the Press Freedom Index.
Source: myxyzonline.com
