Investigative journalist Mannaseh Awuni Azuri has pointed out that journalists are being frustrated when state institutions in their bid to secure information over the belief that it may lead to an exposure of wrongdoing.

According to him, the Fourth Estate has encountered some other institutions who have complied because "there wasn’t any suspicion of any incriminating evidence or information to use for anything,”

Nonetheless, he said he is “beginning to suspect that from the trend we have had and we at the Fourth Estate had made a number of requests some of them or I can say almost all the places that the people suspect that this information is going to come out and put us in a bad light, they find reasons to frustrate.”

This comes on the back of the Media for West Africa Foundation (MFWA) requested to National Communication Authority to provide the full list of all authorised FM stations as of the second quarter of 2020.

The NCA however demanded ₵2,000 for the service of which MFWA claimed the fee was unlawful, unreasonable, unfair, and in violation of its constitutional and fundamental right to access information, hence the suit.

MFWA had contended that the NCA’s demand flouted the RTI Law. But the Court ruled otherwise and asked MFWA to pay ₵1,500.00.

Mr Azuri, speaking on PM Express, Monday said Ghanaians should be worried over NCA's conduct which may be considered fraudulent.

"You [NCA] posted a second-quarter report of 2020 and so the MFWA went through your website and said no the reason you gave for the closure of these radio stations is that they have not renewed their frequency authorization for a number of periods but from your own data, we have found A,B, C,D and others that are also in the same soup so can you explain to us.

"The next moment the NCA pulls down these report from its website deletes the two columns that indicates when the radio station was first given authorisation and when it was last renewed and put them back there. So if you go the website of the NCA you realise that the 2020 quarter report the format is different from all the rest.

"And so if the MFWA is asking for the original list and an explanation as to why they deleted it, they suspect or they know that they are going to be exposed and so all that they are doing is to stop being exposed and that is the impression I am getting from a lot of institutions that we are finding it difficult to get information from,"he stressed.