The right to freedom of expression is protected by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and given legal force through Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the ICCPR).
Moreover, freedom of expression is guaranteed in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and in the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa (African Declaration) as well as in Ghana’s Constitution (Chapter 5, Section 21).
While the right to freedom of expression is fundamental, it is not absolute. A State may, exceptionally, limit the right under Article 19(3) of the ICCPR, provided that the limitation meets the necessary criteria.
Since the upsurge and the use of smart phones, the creation, sharing and dissemination of fake news has also grown tremendously.
Deaths of people who are mostly alive are widely circulated on social media only for such people to emerge to dispel such rumours.
The government has not either been spared the evils of fake news on social media, either by political opponents for political reasons or by ordinary citizens to create disaffection for the government of the day.
The leaks of supposed sexual videos of prominent people in Ghana is just evident for all to see.
Over the weekend, the Ghana Police was the latest casualty in the business of fake news when it asked the public to disregard reports that one of the suspects in the killing of a student nurse in Mankessim, has died.
Christopher Ekow Clark, Tufuhene of Akwakrom, a suburb of Mankesim was widely speculated to have died while in custody.
While some other accounts said he had drunk poison to avert any further embarrassment the case has brought to himself, family and his stool, other social media accounts gave no cause of death.
In a tweet by the Police Service in response to the allegation, the Police indicated that the chief is alive and well, and would reappear in court on October 4, 2022.
In fact there has been several fake news that this paper cannot recount all in its limited editorial columns.
Publication of false news with intent to cause fear and alarm to the public is prohibited under Section 208 of the Criminal Code as a misdemeanour.
It states that publishing or reproducing “any statement, rumour or report which is likely to cause fear and alarm to the public or to disturb the public peace knowing or having reason to believe that the statement, rumour or report is false.”
Again, the lack of knowledge of the falsity of the information is not a defence unless the person took “reasonable measures to verify the accuracy of the statement, rumour or report”.
The GHANAIAN PUBLISHER is only wondering why despite the existence of all the fine laws, people who speculate fake news are not often punished.
We want to urge the authorities whose duty it is to stem the flow of online misinformation and disinformation to act.
The society will be and the social media space will be sanitized when authorities crack the whip and set examples to serve as a deterrent to others.