The Ghana United Nations Association (GUNA) is calling on the society to protect the journalism profession as the world marks the International Day to End Impunity and Crimes against Journalists (IDEI) today.

According to GUNA, “Democracy cannot thrive in any civil society without the journalist and media platform” as it calls on “all political parties to discipline their followers to see the journalist as agents of development thus, advance national security, peace and development.”

In the past eleven years close to 930 journalists have been killed for reporting the news and bringing information to the public. On average, this constitutes one death every four days. In nine out of ten cases the killers go unpunished.

Impunity leads to more killings and is often a symptom of worsening conflict and the breakdown of law and judicial systems. UNESCO is concerned that impunity damages whole societies by covering up serious human rights abuses, corruption, and crime. Governments, civil society, the media, and everyone concerned to uphold the rule of law are being asked to join in the global efforts to end impunity.

It is in recognition of the far-reaching consequences of impunity, especially of crimes against journalists that the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/68/163 at its 68th session in 2013 which proclaimed 2 November as the 'International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists' (IDEI).

In a statement signed by Director of Administration, Rev. Kingsley Osafo-Mireku, GUNA further appealed to the National Communication Authority (NCA) “to reconsider its decision on the closure of media houses since that act will consequently render thousands of journalists jobless and more so obliterate free speech.”

Read the full statement below:

2nd November, 2017

 

 PRESS RELEASE

 

INTERNATIONAL DAY TO END IMPUNITY AND CRIMES AGAINST JOURNALISTS

 

The Ghana United Nations Association (GUNA) wishes to celebrate and honour hardworking journalists in Ghana who have braved the storm in bringing to fore very critical issues of national interest to the ordinary Ghanaian.

Journalists play a very critical social function in every society by interfacing the government of the day and the citizens. By the nature of their job, howbeit difficult and dangerous, they inform and educate the populace of the workings of government policies, as well as activities and programs in every sector of the economy.

Yet, in their quest to inform and educate the populace about the happenings in our society, a number of journalists have suffered serious injustices and mortal abuse by politically aligned thugs and hooligans, public officials and agencies even to extents, where some of them have lost their lives in the line of duty.

It is also important to note that, journalism can only thrive and run on a media platform, hence the more the media outlets there are, the closer the populace are to quality information. Hence, we call on the National Communication Authority (NCA) to reconsider its decision on the closure of media houses since that act will consequently render thousands of journalists jobless and more so obliterate free speech which is one of the cardinal principles in the practice of democracy.

Democracy cannot thrive in any civil society without the journalist and media platform, hence GUNA is calling on all Ghanaians to protect the noble profession of journalists. We are also calling on all political parties to discipline their followers to see the journalist as agents of development thus, advance national security, peace and development.