Law on Contempt must be codified for Clarity

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.