The President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, has called for intensified pressure on governments across the world to make them more committed to the protection and safety of journalists.
He expressed concern about the high rate of attacks on journalists worldwide, including killings, and noted that it is important to get governments to be more committed to curbing impunity by ensuring the arrest and prosecution of perpetrators of such crimes.
Mr Dwumfour made the call in a panel discussion at a two-day meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to commemorate this year’s International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.
The panel discussion was under the joint auspices of the Federation of African Journalists(FAJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on the topic: ‘Ensuring the safety and protection of journalists by addressing impunity: A responsibility for the world’.
The commemoration of this year’s International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists was jointly organised by UNESCO and the African Union (AU) on the theme: ‘Safety of journalists in crises and emergencies’.
The GJA President was accompanied by the General Secretary, Kofi Yeboah, to attend the commemorative event whose highlights included the launch of the Virtual Scroll, a screen projection of the casualty profile of 1653 journalists killed worldwide between 1993 and 2023.
The victims include Ghanaian investigative journalist Ahmed Suale, who was killed in 2019 but whose killers have not been found, six years after his death.
Describing the global casualty figure as very alarming, Mr Dwoumfour said there is a need to take decisive measures to end the killings.
Mr Dwumfour further indicated, “At the international level we need to push for the adoption of severe sanctions against states or governments that perpetrate harm against journalists.
“Leaders of such states or governments must be held personally liable for such crimes against journalists,” he said.
Mr Dwumfour said as a preventive measure, there was the need to intensify public education about the critical role of the media and journalists in the development paradigm and the need to avoid harming them.
“This will encourage the public to ensure the protection and safety of journalists,” he added.