Law on Contempt
must be codified for Clarity
…Argues Prof.
Karikari
By
Awal Mohammed
The
Executive Director of Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Professor Kwame
Karikari, has called for a clear codification of the law on contempt in order
to ensure clarity. This, he said, should be done in a manner that does not
criminalize speech or media expressions.
Speaking
at a public forum organized jointly by the Ghana Center for Democratic
Development (CDD-Ghana), the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and the
National Media Commission (NMC) in Accra was concerned about the contempt issue
and the criminalization of speech, for which reason participants at the forum
were to deliberate on some key questions for consideration.
According
to him, the procedure of allowing the very court which has been scandalized or
interfered with, to punish the interference itself, seemed "to fly in the
face of the cherished principles on natural justice, especially the audi
alteram partem rule, and thus creates an anomaly in our judicial
system.”
He
observed that the contempt cases at the Supreme Court (SC) had raised numerous
questions about the rights to free speech, media (press) freedom and wondered
whether there were or should be limits and what limits there should be to these
freedoms.
Professor
Karikari further added that; "in a country with a written constitution and
written criminal and penal codes, its citizens can ill to live in the realm of
uncertainty in respect of the all important offence of contempt of court."
Touching
on the arguments raised by a section of the public in recent times in connection
with whether the decisions of the Supreme Court on the contempt cases
threatened free speech, he noted that the cases were likely to affect the media
and the general public's comments on the work and outcomes of the work of the
judiciary.
By
hindsight and a possible way of substantiating his point, he cited the
summoning of Mr. Sammy Awuku, Deputy Communications Director of the New
Patriotic Party and the subsequent convictions of Mr. Stephen Atubiga, a
National Democratic Congress Communicator and Mr. Ken Kuranchie, Editor of the
Daily Searchlight newspaper, as having equally raised loud questions about the
professional and ethical weaknesses and malpractices of the media in Ghana.
"The
contempt cases again highlight relief disturbing questions about the
responsibilities of political leaderships and their commitment to promoting an
enlightened culture on the conduct of public discussion on public
affairs," he asserted.
Professor
Karikari further shed light on how the two leading political groups—the
National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party
(NPP)—consistently appeared to be encouraging the use of the media to foment
animosity and needless polarization of society.
He
therefore cautioned all political parties and their activists to rethink their
attitudes to media usage and also called on their leadership to publicly
reprimand members who insulted the public’s intelligence by making reckless and
irresponsible expressions.
A
lecturer at the School of Communication Studies of the University of Ghana,
Legon, Professor Audrey Gadzekpo, on her part pointed out that because of the
infant nature of the Ghanaian democracy and the fact that her populace had had
a long history of authoritarianism coupled with the culture of silence and the
suppression of free speech, the court should be moderate in dealing with these
cases in order to deflate fears that characterised those horrific days they
once experienced.
She
called on the courts to be circumspect in responding to such a nebulous issue
as contempt of court. The request for public education on these matters as the
best way on drawing attention to the ambit of the concept did not skip her
lips.
