The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has commended the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo for seeking redress at the National Media Commission (NMC), rather than the law courts, for what he deemed as defamatory publications against him by five pro-government newspapers.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”enelJhgCmpsOw4u9FzsVkE2nmPULttsh”]A statement signed by NMC Chairman, Kabral Blay-Amihere said that on June 16, 2014, Akufo-Addo filed a complaint at the Commission against the five newspapers namely, Daily Post, Ghanaian Lens, The Enquirer, The Informer and the Al-Hajj for publications that he described as \u201coffensive and derogatory.<\/strong><\/a><\/span>\u201d<\/p>\n The said articles were published between June 8-14, 2014.<\/p>\n Akufo-Addo complained to the NMC that the \u201csubstance of the stories complained of, are in all essentials utterly false, a product of the imagination of the publishers of the newspapers\u201d and requested that the \u201cseverest sanctions to be visited on the newspapers in question in accordance of Act 449\u201d which sets up the NMC.<\/p>\n Following its investigations, the NMC concluded that the said publications were inappropriate and consequently directed the five newspapers to retract their articles<\/strong><\/a><\/span> and apologise to Akufo-Addo for the said publications.<\/p>\n The NMC statement said officials of the five newspapers failed to honour invitations to appear before the NMC to settle the matter. The MFWA finds such disregard for the Commission by the media very unfortunate and urges the media to accord the Commission the respect and full co-operation when complaints are made.<\/p>\n Just recently a Fast Track High Court in Accra ordered General Portfolio Limited, publishers of The Chronicle, a privately-owned newspaper; its acting editor, Emmanuel Akli; and the paper\u2019s business editor, Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, to pay Gh\u00a2200,000 for publishing articles deemed offensive<\/strong><\/a><\/span> towards one Isaac Dzihlornu, an Immigration Officer.<\/p>\n