The National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress has stated that the caution issued by the Judicial Service to the media is in bad taste and an affront to press freedom.

Speaking on Newsnight, Sammy Gyamfi stated that the actions by the Judiciary Service has the tendency of promoting an autocratic rule, stifling the press freedom enjoyed in the Ghanaian media landscape and instilling fear in the general public.  

“The letter from the Judicial Service through their lawyers to some media houses is an affront to free speech and press freedom and has the tendency of instilling fear in people and reintroducing the graded culture of silence that we all over the years have worked so hard to defeat.”

His comments comes on the back of a statement by lawyers of the Judicial Service of Ghana which stated that the media since the commencement of the 2020 election petition trial has engaged in the “publication of a series of incendiary, hateful and offensive statements, and speeches on their various platforms against the Justices.”

The Judicial Service, as such, called for the removal of such statements and speeches from media platforms. It further threatened that should such statements not be taken down, “appropriate action will be taken” to ensure that “the media do not abuse the right to free speech.”

Sammy Gyamfi, however, noted that the NDC party’s stance against the statement by the Judiciary is not to say that the NDC support the use of hateful or offensive language against the Judiciary.

Nevertheless, he believes that the Judiciary is not entitled nor has the authority to threaten any the media to criticize them in certain ways.

“They can not dictate to the media or the people of this country how they [Judicial Service] should be criticized. We all know of the boundaries of constructive criticism the law allows us to do relative to the Judicial act.

"Are they the ones to tell us what criticism is allowed? I mean we cannot allow that in a democracy,” he stressed.