Lawyer for Nana Akufo- Addo, Godfred Odame has threatened to drag the Ghanaian Lens and four other media houses to court if they fail to retract their comments and apologise to the former.
The National Media Commission (NMC) directed the Daily Post, Ghanaian Lens, The Enquirer, Informer and Al Hajj newspapers to apologize to Nana Akufo Addo for allegedly defaming his reputation.
[contextly_sidebar id=”F00GvZs86XC4YuphXz4cInjbQOypSAee”]An Editor of one the newspapers[Ghanaian Lens], Kobby Fiagbe has however criticised the NMC for ordering them to apologise to Nana Addo.
He believes they do not deserve an apology since the NMC failed to consult the accused media houses before taking a decision against them.
Speaking on Eyewitness News however, Godfred Odame said : they “can have recourse to the law court.. it is an option that we can go for…” if the media houses do not retract their comments.
Defending Nana Addo’s decision to sue the newspapers, Godfred Odame further revealed that: “this is the very first time that he[Nana Addo] has decided to take this newspaper on whether in the realm of the Media Commission or in the law court …”
“We sent various reminders to them. The Media Commission itself issued various reminders to the media and they were not able to come up with any substantiation…,”he further argued.
According to him, Nana Addo was compelled to report the issue to the NMC because the said publication was “ utterly false”.
“…when the NDC keeps on repeating the same nature or publication then of course he is human being so he will be definitely pressed to the wall and that is why he was compelled to go to the Media Commission.”
He further remarked that that “decision to take the matter to the Media Commission is definitely in line with what Nana Addo has stood for throughout.”
“When Nana Addo became Attorney General he pushed for the repeal of the criminal libel law because he believed that speech ought not be criminalised and that if there is any publication untoward by the media then it should be dealt within the civil realm.”
–
By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah