Two journalists were Thursday evening assaulted by members of a taskforce of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly engaged in demolition exercise. Cyrus De-Graft Johnson, a broadcast journalist from Joy FM, and another reporter from Radio Gold, were reporting the destruction of unauthorized structures in the vicinity of the Accra Shopping Mall at the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange. The AMA is carrying out decongestion exercises in the metropolis and has served notice all unauthorised structures should be removed by their owners or have them destroyed. The brute members of the taskforce who would have none of the protestations of the journalists, insisted their reportage would draw crowds to the scene and forcibly took away their mobile phones and recorders. They then went ahead to beat them up, shredding their clothes in the process while uniformed and armed policemen accompanying the taskforce looked on. The taskforce members even had the guts to order the police to arrest the journalists, exccept they could not provide any cause to the police for the arrest. Cyrus De-Graft Johnson, who narrated his sordid ordeal to Joy News, said “Four guys came to me and tried to snatch my phone, while another managed to pick my recorder and wallet from my pocket. “Somebody slapped me; one ran his hand off my face, asking me to give him my phone.” He said his other colleague even received a severer beating. Story by Isaac Essel/Myjoyonline.com