The High Commissioner of the UK to Ghana, Christian Rogg, has underscored the importance of press freedom in maintaining peace in the world.
He said, without press freedom, there will be no peace.
Mr Rogg made this remark at the commemoration of 2026 World Press Freedom Day in Accra on May 6.
“When you look around the world, you can see that peace and democracy are both under threat as we meet here today, and as we see developments around the world unfolding…you don’t need to think too hard before realizing that a free, independent, and a pluralistic media is critical in terms of stemming that set of developments. So, press freedom is fundamental both to maintaining and building peace, as well as to maintaining the democratic resilience of societies,” the High Commissioner said.
The event, which was attended by key stakeholders in the media in Ghana, was held by the British High Commission in collaboration with the Embassy of the Netherlands.
According to him, although the global theme for this year is “shaping a future at peace,” a more focused topic, “defend truth in the digital age” was chosen.
“The focus here is on what that means for journalism, for information integrity, and for democratic resilience in Ghana,” he explained.
He used the occasion to commend the Ghanaians media for recording a rise in the World Press Freedom Index.
“And actually, we come together shortly after the annual ranking of the World Press Freedom Index has been published. And if you haven’t spotted it, it is a moment that can make Ghana very proud, because Ghana rose in the ranking 13 places from last year, and if I read it correctly, it now has the fourth freest media environment in Africa,” he noted.
Mr Rogg added, “So this is just a snapshot of data that has just been published, but I think it’s quite clear that it comes on a proud legacy of having had a very open, a very free media environment. And in fact, that is not just the practice, but it’s grounded in the Constitution.”
