The Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper has lauded JoyNews’ documentary which unearthed the existence of a militia, De Eye Group, operating from the Christiansborg Castle.

“Generally speaking, I thought that story [documentary] was a good thing; it was a piece of journalism that was good,” Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, stated Saturday, on Newsfile on Joy News TV.

The media organisation in the course of the production of the controversial documentary titled ‘Militia in the heart of the nation’, used library footage from the violence that characterised the Awawaso West Wuogon by-election, as a representative of what the documentary sought to unravel.

A file photo was also used and properly captioned so in an online publication to promote the documentary premiering.

But in a ruling on government’s petition filed by the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, against The Multimedia Group, the NMC faulted JoyNews TV on the use of the library materials.

It described it as unethical. 

But Kweku Baako disagrees with that decision.

Read also: JoyNews' position on NMC ruling on ‘Militia in the Heart of the City’ documentary

According to him, it is accepted practice to use library materials to support the information gathered by the producer in order to place the subject in a proper context.

“My difficulty is to suggest that that is unethical. Relative to documentary production, I will find it difficult if that is classified as unethical,” the experienced journalist told the host of the programme, Samson Lardy Anyenini.

He has, therefore, challenged the decision of the NMC and wondered whether the Commission members were familiar with how documentaries of such nature are produced, prior to arriving at such a conclusion.

“Is there a deficit on the part of the members of the panel relative to what goes into documentary production,” he asked.