President John Mahama has pledged to work closely with the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to restore Ghana’s reputation as a model of press freedom, not only in West Africa, but across the continent.
During a courtesy call by a GJA delegation on Friday, September 4, 2025, the President expressed concern about the country’s consistent decline on the World Press Freedom Index.
“The consistent decline in our international rankings is an issue of concern to us and part of it is because of issues to do with harassment of journalists and even the unfortunate murder of Ahmed Suale which court international attention and I think that since then other issues have occurred,” he said.
He emphasised the need for persons who attack journalists to face sanctions to serve as deterrent to others.
“And so we need to find a way of ensuring that people when they do that kind of thing, they face sanctions or are punished because once there is no deterrent they continue to do it or to educate and create awareness that journalists are not enemies, they are reporting something that is happening and so they must be given a free leverage to be able to do their reporting,” President Mahama stated.
The president cited the harassment of journalists, as well as the high-profile murder of investigative journalist, Ahmed Suale and subsequent attacks on media practitioners, as issues that have tainted Ghana’s international image.
President Mahama also announced that his government will establish a forum for dialogue between journalists and security agencies, aimed at educating officers that journalists are partners in national development, not adversaries.
He again says he is committed to collaborating with the GJA to ensure Ghana reclaims its pride of place in global press freedom rankings.
The GJA President, Albert Dwumfuor leading the newly-elected executives to call on the president urged government to tighten legislation against those who attack journalists, stressing that current laws are too weak to serve as a deterrent.
“We call on you as someone who understand the plights of journalists better and as part of the fraternity to find a cure or antidote to end these attacks on journalists in order to improve on our ranking.
“Your Excellency, with the assaults on journalists, respectfully, we entreat you to invoke your Executive powers to enact a law to empower the security agencies to protect journalists since most of these attacks are premeditated and must be treated as aggravated offence.
“If we continue to treat assault or attack on journalists as a misdemeanour, Your Excellency, it will not serve as a deterrent to others,” Albert Dwumfuor noted.
He further called for compensation for journalists who have been assaulted in the line of duty.
“Most or some of our colleagues have also suffered occupational hazard in their line of duty. We want to appeal to your good self for a compensation for such journalists who have suffered injuries in the line of duty.”
