Suit against EC for charging accreditation fee dismissed
A suit challenging the Electoral Commission’s (EC’s) decision to charge journalists for accreditation that would enable them to cover the 2016 Election was yesterday dismissed by the Human Rights Division of the Accra High Court.
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The suit filed by a group known as International Standards Journalists Association (ISJA) was dismissed after the court held that the group had failed to properly invoke the jurisdiction of the court.
The dismissal followed a preliminary legal objection raised by the EC that the group failed to use the right procedure in initiating the case.
The court, presided over by Mrs Justice Gifty Adjei, also awarded cost of GH¢3,000 against the plaintiff.
Accreditation
The EC, in a statement released on October 31, 2016, asked journalists who wished to cover the presidential and parliamentary election to pay a fee of GH¢10 for accreditation.
However the ISJA in the suit claimed that the move by the EC was a breach of the fundamental human rights of the journalists to cover the election and vote.
The group, therefore, wanted an order from the court “compelling the EC to issue accreditation tags to qualified Ghanaian journalists without demanding any financial payment from them to cover the 2016 Election.’’
ISJA further wanted an order “compelling the EC to refund any money paid by every journalist for the accreditation tag.’’
Wrong procedure
At yesterday’s sitting, counsel for the EC, Mr Thaddeus Sory, argued that ISJA failed to properly invoke the jurisdiction of the court because the suit should had been filed by way of an application and not a writ of summons.
He argued that the suit bordered on fundamental human rights and hence it was not supposed to be initiated through a writ of summons.
“They should have come by way of an application and not writ of summons. Such an illegality is not justified,’’ he explained.
Non-existent group
Mr Sory further argued that the suit was initiated by a non-existent group and hence the plaintiff could not claim to be fighting in the interest of anybody.
“ISJA is a group that does not exist so how can a suit that claims to be fighting in the interest of journalists be initiated in its name?’’ he questioned.
New suit
As a result of the dismissal, Nana Oppong, who represented ISJA in court, has filed a new suit challenging the EC’s decision to charge accreditation fee.
The new suit was, however, filed by Nana Oppong as plaintiff and not the group.
The hearing of the new suit is today.
