Investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni, has descended heavily on the President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) for not getting full facts before commenting on the detention of Ghanaian journalist Caleb Kudah.
Roland Affail Monney had faulted Mr Kudah for breaching the GJA Code of Ethics in going to the premises of the National Security Ministry to film without the required permission.
However, a couple of days after this, Mr Monney issued an apology to Ghanaians and said he did not, at the time of granting the interview, have the full facts of the situation before commenting.
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“Unsurprisingly, my condemnation of the office invasion and physical brutalization was muted while my comments on Caleb’s ethical style was tilted and overly highlighted obviously to achieve certain sensational ends,” he told journalists in Accra at a press conference on Friday, May 14.
“As a student of leadership, I have learned that a leader is not afraid to change course when confronted with fresh information which challenges earlier assumptions,” he said.
He added: “I also take note of the righteous indignation and emotional overdrive over the issue.
“I, therefore, render my sincerest apology for any misimpression created that I was insensitive to the plight of the two journalists but excited about the excesses of the National Security operatives.”
But speaking on TV3 on Saturday, May 15, the Editor-in-Chief of The Fourth Estate said Mr Monney seemed late to the party anytime journalists are attacked.
Mr Awuni said even on his own volition, he had gathered a few facts about the incident to have an informed opinion on the matter as of the close of Tuesday, when the incident happened.
Therefore, for a GJA President not to have the full facts by Wednesday evening when he granted the interview, to Manasseh Azure, was mind-boggling.
He said even Mr Monney had no business leading the GJA because his tenure has expired.
“The GJA, for instance, had to do an election last year and elect a new leadership. For whatever reason, they haven’t done it, so Affail Monney, who is still talking, his tenure expired last November and he had done the two terms. So he has no business even leading us but it is one of them.
“So, we have to address the leadership challenge at the GJA,” he said.
The former Ghana Journalist of the Year also called for empowerment of journalists, bemoaning the remuneration media practitioners receive in Ghana.
For him, there should be coordination among media practitioners and the “needless” competition must begin to make way for a unionised front.