The Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), says presidential staffer Stan Dogbe is not fit to work so closely with the president.

Sulemana Braimah said the Head of the Communications Bureau at the presidency has proven that he is unworthy of his current position.

The foundation has petitioned President John Mahama to sanction the former journalist for conduct condemned as an assault on media independence.

It has collected signatures from 155 journalist in about 40 media houses to found the petition.

Mr. Dogbe in the heat of the presidential press corps accident in August this year, snatched the voice recorder of a GBC reporter and smashed it on the floor.

Yahya Kwamoah was at the 37 Military Hospital to report on the accident which killed Ghanaian Times reporter, Samuel Nuamah.

He was reported to have recorded a conversation between Communications Minister Dr. Omane Boamah and Mr. Stan Dogbe.

According to Ghana Journalists Association president Affail Monney, the Communications Minister told the reporter the content of the conversation he was having with Stan Dogbe was not for public consumption.

The reporter left but was chased by Mr. Dogbe who seized the recorder and smashed it on the floor in the hospital.

Affail Monney later told Joy News the president’s close confidante admitted destroying the recorder but promised to replace it.

GBC did not do a story on the incident, prompting waves of criticism from media professional who thought the promise to replace the recorder was not enough.

Journalism professor, Audrey Gadzekpo told Joy FM’s news analysis programme in a serious democracy, Stan Dogbe would have been sacked immediately.

The Media Foundation for West Africa presented a recorder to the GBC to replace Kwamoah’s destroyed recorder and proceeded to petition the president to sanction Stan.

Jemima Nunoo

Commenting on the petition on Joy FM and MultiTV’s news analysis programme Newsfile, the Foundation’s Executive Director, said, “my personal view is that Stan Dogbe is not fit for where he works from because if you are working with the president - and as we all know, Stan is very close to the president – and [you] put up such untoward behaviour, it definitely affects the reputation of the president.”

He said he was not surprised that not one journalist from the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation signed the petition calling for sanctions on Stan Dogbe.

“If you talk to any GBC journalist, the first thing they tell you is that, ‘look we cannot speak, [if we do], we will be punished, management will not tolerate that,” he stated.

Even though this is embarrassing, Mr. Braimah said, it is the current state of affairs at the state broadcaster.

Contributing to the discussion, Jemima Nunoo, a lecturer at the GIMPA Business School, commended the MFWA for its action, insisting it “is important we jealously guard press freedom.”

She was concerned that no GBC journalist signed the petition for fear of victimization.

“It makes me wonder what else they are also scared to report that they have seen that the general public needs to know,” she observed.

Journalists who still wish to sign the petition can do so here.