Editorial of the Daily Searchlight of Monday, 14th August 2022
Alhaji Shani Alhassan Saibu, Northern Regional Minister has described as shocking publications alleging that a student was arrested because of derogatory comments he made against him (Minister) on social media.
A statement issued by the Public Relations Unit of the Northern Regional Coordinating Council (NRCC) and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Tamale on Friday, said the Regional Minister was unaware of any connection between the social media comment of Sayibu Afa Yaba and his subsequent arrest by the Police.
It said, “Since the comment was made by Afa Yaba, there have been several other comments in support and against, some worse than Afa Yaba’s, but no single person has complained of harassment or intimidation over his or her comment.”
Various media reports suggested that Afa Yaba, a member of the Tertiary Students Confederacy of the New Patriotic Party (TESCON) at the Tamale Technical University was arrested on August 10, for making derogatory comments on social media against the Regional Minister.
The Daily Searchlight says that the media in Ghana should endeavor to move beyond rumour peddling and suggestivity in the handling of sensitive information.
We believe that the reasons for the arrest of this person who does his activism on social media, could easily have been ascertained by checking with appropriate sources, or the Minister whose integrity has been so maligned, before going to press.
We believe that a great degree of sensationalism in Ghana, can be avoided if we in the media avoided the tendency to be the first with the news, for the sake of professionalism.
(This article was first published in the column EDITORIAL of the Daily Searchlight of Monday, 14th August, 2022. The Daily Searchlight appears on the newsstands of Ghana every working day and PDF versions are available for sale online twenty-four hours a day all day throughout the world on www.ghananewsstand.com).
