President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, has condemned the recent spate of attacks on journalists, describing them as deliberate and premeditated acts that must be treated as serious criminal offences rather than minor infractions.
Mr. Dwumfour stressed that such assaults are not impulsive actions but often planned with clear intent. “Usually, issues of such attacks and assaults are premeditated.
These are not issues we should take for granted,” he said on The Big Issue with Selorm Adonoo on Channel One TV.
“Before anybody plans to attack a journalist in the line of duty, it is either that it has been planned already, determined. They had already planned that today we’re going to do A, B, C, D.”
He argued that the premeditated nature of these attacks elevates their seriousness and called for stiffer punishment against perpetrators.
“Premeditated must be seen as a very serious offence, not a misdemeanour case,” he added.
His remarks follow two high-profile incidents involving assaults on journalists in less than a month.
A GHOne TV reporter was attacked during the Ablekuma North parliamentary rerun on July 17, and just days later, on July 30, JoyNews reporter Carlos Calony, his cameraman, and an eyewitness were reportedly assaulted by armed military officers during a demolition exercise at Spintex.
