Last Saturday, January 10, reading some of the day’s newspapers and reflecting on the horrific events in Paris, coincidentally, a prominent photo of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Gifty Tehoda in the Daily Guide also caught my attention.
It accompanied a report of the case in which she has sued the Ghana Police Service. The photo appeared to have been taken while she was addressing the media, speaking into a microphone bearing a media house logo.
I was struck by the irony of seeing her photo in that particular paper, especially bearing in mind the coincidence of the date this article would be published, January 16.
Obviously the picture had been taken without any protest, contrary to what happened in 2012. I recalled that on January 16, 2012 I had issued a statement on behalf of the Editors Forum Ghana (EFG), of which I happen to be the chairperson, in reaction to an incident involving DSP Tehoda.
What had prompted the EFG statement was the assault and indecent handling of a Daily Guide photographer, Gifty Lawson. Together with two other Guide staff, she had been assaulted by colleagues of DSP Tehoda because they objected to photographs of the DSP being taken when she appeared in court.
The EFG statement had condemned the unprovoked assault and maltreatment of Ms Lawson, reportedly by some officers of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) at the premises of the Accra High Court on January 12, 2012.
It pointed out that: “The image conjured up by the eye-witness accounts of a group of men molesting a woman, to the extent of tearing her clothes and exposing her underwear on the premises of a court of justice, while uniformed policemen looked on unconcerned, surely put the whole country to shame.”
The statement had questioned what Ms Lawson’s offence was, as the court had not barred reporters from covering the proceedings, nor barred the taking of photos of the people involved.
Furthermore, “one had expected that when in the course of their duty journalists encounter brutality from misguided elements who believe that shooting the messenger is the solution to the problem, the journalists should be able to count on protection from the police and other state security operatives.”
Fast forward to the present and what a remarkable difference! For, the January 10, 2015 photo was but one of a number of the DSP’s image that I have been seeing in the Guide recently. Other papers too use her photo. Indeed, there was a lovely one in the Ghanaian Times earlier this week, on Monday.
Is the difference the fact that in 2012 Mrs Tehoda was an accused and she is now a plaintiff? In 2012, she was in court in relation to a case in which a cocaine exhibit in the custody of the police was allegedly swapped with sodium bicarbonate. Currently, she is seeking justice at the Human Rights High Court where she has sued the Police Service, claiming unlawful dismissal from the Service.
Such a development underscores the message of another EFG statement issued last year when the assaults of media people again became a matter for concern.
That statement, issued on September 15, 2014, concluded with following advice that those who attack press photographers and TV camerapersons might bear in mind: “As has been proven time and again, the media you assault today may be the institution whose assistance you may need to tell your story tomorrow.”
I’m still mystified about the BNI operatives’ reasons for brutalising the Guide staff. One does not expect that of officers of the law. Unfortunately, such intimidation, a censorship tactic, persists on our court premises, perpetrated by misguided friends and relatives of accused persons.
But of course the more confounding issue was the cruellest of censorships that took place in Paris, also in the Saturday Guide and other papers I was reading; the attack in the editorial rooms of the satirical French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, on January 7, in which 12 people were killed. Related attacks and hostage situations left a total of 17 dead in Paris, generating continuing shock headlines everywhere.
The Charlie Hebdo attackers, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi were described as Muslim extremists who were taking revenge on the magazine for disrespecting the Prophet Muhammad. They were killed during shoot-outs with the police.
A powerful, enlightening article by a contributor, Abubakar Mohammed in the Daily Graphic of Monday, January 12, stated:
“The murderers of the journalists and cartoonists have claimed that they were murdered to honour the Prophet. The truth is that the actions of these attackers have nothing to do with Islam and are a grave insult to the sacred principles of Islam. I, as a Muslim, personally feel insulted and attacked. Their actions are a clear violation of what the Prophet of God has taught and exemplified.
“There is no Islam in terrorism.”
It is significant that the world leaders who joined the thousands for the historic unity rally in Paris on Sunday, January 11, in solidarity with the Charlie Hebdo victims and free expression, included Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
One can only pray that there will be no more such terrible developments for the world to contend with.
Admittedly the outlook is not encouraging. In Nigeria, the more than 200 school girls kidnapped on April 14 last year by the Boko Haram, in Chibok, Borno State, are still missing and it seems that hardly a week goes by without news of one nightmarish Boko Haram atrocity or the other. The inevitable question being asked is why not similar international solidarity with Nigeria as demonstrated with the Paris victims?
Perhaps what prompted the mass solidarity with Paris was the worldwide belief in, and support for, freedom of expression. Furthermore, the Paris unity march was announced almost immediately after the killings, attracting the spontaneous global response.
But, on the other hand, maybe one should ask whether the Nigerian authorities have started or announced a similar action which sympathisers from West Africa and other regions would feel compelled to support.
The Paris killings represent a terrifying illustration of what the famous Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw observed long ago: “assassination is the extreme form of censorship.”
Not everybody agrees with the Charlie Hebdo magazine’s cartoons, its content or viewpoint, but surely the staff did not deserve to be murdered for that.
May they find eternal rest; may their families find the strength to bear their loss; and may the deaths open the door to better understanding of the role of the society’s messengers.
We’re just messengers, doing our duty of oiling the wheels of democracy through free expression; just doing our job.
