NPP issues guidelines for its communicators
The main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has spelt out a set of guidelines by which its communicators should speak in relation to the election petition.
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It contains 11 Dos and 22 Don’ts. The guidelines, prepared by Mr Kow Essuman, Esq., come on the heels of the sentencing to prison of the Managing Editor of the Daily Searchlight newspaper, Mr Ken Kuranchie, for criminal contempt.
Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party has cautioned his party members and the general public to desist from using words that can undermine the authority of the court hearing the 2012 presidential election petition.
Mr Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, alias Sir John, said it was for that reason that he commissioned the ‘comprehensive guidelines on how not to fall foul of contempt of the Court’ for the benefit of his party communicators, members and the general public.
He said he instructed the NPP Communications Directorate to release the guidelines to the general public "so that even the NDC may benefit from it. It is not in our collective interest that things are said from any side that can cause disaffection for the Court, undermine their authority and give any citizen the false impression that we have a choice whether or not to accept the decision of the Court.
Mr Owusu Afriyie thanked the Justice William Atuguba-led panel for its "patience and understanding. But the Court has also showed to all of us that it can bite and has done so and will do more.”
He said several things were said in the past before the presiding judge gave the final "touchline" warning on Monday, June 24, 2013.
"There is no excuse for any of us, including me, to defy this Supreme Court order. It is for the sake of the peace and stability of the only nation we have, Ghana, that the nine justices have decided to draw the line. We should respect them for that and the best form of respect we can show is to abide by their order that we must mind our language,"he said.
He stressed that this petition of Nana Akufo-Addo, his running mate and our chairman challenging the validity of the EC declaring John Mahama the winner of the 2012 election “is crucial to Ghana's destiny.”
“We must, therefore, act responsibly and allow the lawyers and judges to do the work." Mr Owusu Afriyie said.
He added that "This case will not be won by a propaganda jury. This case is about evidence and not who can threaten judges, who can sweet-promise his party supporters to expect victory. It is about who has the evidence, pure and simple, and that is why we are in Court."
Quoting from a few of the guidelines, the NPP General Secretary said it was imperative for communicators “not to predict the outcome of the presidential election petition no matter how confident you are about the case or how tempting it sounds. You are not a judge sitting on the panel and your comments in the media may be construed as prejudicial.”
Communicators are not to use insulting, abusive, threatening or rude words or phrases in describing the judges and must not pass personal remarks about judges.
Among others, communicators are not to use defamatory language in describing a judge. Defamatory language means anything that you say that will lower the judge in the eyes of right thinking members of society, the guidelines stated.
