The return of the "culture of silence" in Ghana.

 

"Culture  of silence" is the act where by citizens of a country do not have the zealotry to criticize authority for fear of being penalized or castigated. Our beloved country Ghana has been independent from it's colonial masters for the past sixty four years today. Ghana is one of the countries that has experienced numerous military regimes. As a matter of fact, citizens experienced a lot of issues during these military regimes and one of these issues among the many is "the culture of silence". During the military regime, citizens were not given the freedom of speech more especially speaking against the government.

Several people such as journalists went through several castigation during this era when they spoke about the ills of the government.  

The opposition Ashanti Pioneer, which had operated since the 1930s was shut down by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who was the president of Ghana by then because he was criticized. And also during Busia's era, he dismissed the owner of the state owned Daily Graphic for opposing him, all the works of "culture of silence" . The same way when Rawlings took over power, he passed laws that prevented criticisms of the government or its policies, dismissed editors critical of him and passed various laws such as the Preventive Custody Law and Newspaper Licensing Law which allowed indefinite detention without trial of journalists and stifled private Media Development respectively. The policies did not only affect print media, but also the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation with several dismissals or premature retirement. These are just but a few practical examples of "the culture of silence" in Ghana during the military regime.

The aftermath of all these followed the drawing of the constitution in 1992 then elections were conducted where the Rt. Lieutenant Jerry J. Rawlings won.

On Chapter 5, Article 21, clause 1 paragraph (a), of the 1992 Ghana's constitution states that, "freedom of speech and expression, which shall include freedom of the press and other media". This means every citizen of Ghana has the freedom to speak out what so ever the person has that worries him/her, not excluding criticizing the government constructively so as to put it on its toes to do the right thing. After the drawing of the constitution, governments that came have in one way or the other respected this part of the constitution which gives freedom to citizens to speak out their grievances without any form of intimidation fear or favour, hence reduction of "the culture of silence".

Chapter 12, Article 162 clause 4 also states "Editors and publishers of newspapers and other institutions of the mass media shall not be subject to control or interference by government, nor shall they be penalized or harassed by their editorial opinions and views or the content of their publications".

All these make it clear that the government is not beyond criticisms and therefore must be criticized to the fullest for the right thing to be done in the country. There seem to have been the return of  "the culture of silence" for the past five  years today. Several issues concerning freedom of speech by citizens as well as the press have come up which triggers people to question if there is the return of " the culture of silence" that existed during the military regime in the history of our country Ghana.

For instance, some moments back, a Ghanaian investigative journalist Ahmed Hessein Saule, who had collaboration with BBC was shot dead near his family home in Accra and information suggests that it was as a result of his job as an investigative journalist. Several investigations have been done which yielded no results.

On August 21 2020, a soldier kicked, punched and seized the cameras and phones of journalists, Stanley Nii Blewu and Joseph Armstrong Gold-Alorgbey of TV3 whilst on duty. It did not just end there, another broadcast journalist Caleb Kudah of Citi FM was physically abused on Thursday 11 May 2021 whilst in national security custody without any formal change. Many journalists have shared similar stories about they being castigated and brutalized whilst doing their job. The question is what has been done about all these happenings in the country? Has the culture of silence returned to our country? I leave that to our authorities. Kwesi Pratt Jnr talking about the current happening of people being brutalized for speaking about the government on Pan African TV during their Alhaji & Alhaji show said some of them were lucky they put them in prison but later released them  "today if you talk about the president you will end in coffin" he added hence the return of " the culture of silence". So sad to experience from a democratic country like out own Ghana.

Ghana being a democratic country must not experience such practices. The constitution must be put to work effectively such that government can be criticized constructively without fear or favour to have the right thing done in order to improve development. Our people must speak for the right thing to be done.

By Eric Dindobuo//straight news Gh.