The Magistrate responsible for the adjudication of the committal proceedings of the Chief Executive Officer of the Obengfo Hospital, her Worship, Efua Sackey ordered the seizure of mobile phones belonging to journalists who attended the court to report on the trial.
The phone of the CEO of Obengfo Hospital was also seized.
Her Worship Efua Sackey ordered the Court Warrant Officer (CWO) to seize the phones of all journalists before she would start hearing the case.
The phones of court correspondents of Accra-based FM’s Ama Brako Ampofo, Ghanaian Times reporter Malik Suleiman, Publisher newspaper Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson, and reporter of EIB Network, Wilberforce Asare were seized by the CWO for an hour.
Some said the decision and subsequent orders are completely alien to their experiences in courts, noting that not even in the higher courts like the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Courts are phones belonging to journalists seized prior to hearings.