H.E. John Evans Atta Mills
President
Republic of Ghana
c/o Embassy of the Republic of Ghana
3512 International Drive, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: (202) 686.4527
Your Excellency:
We write to let you know of our solidarity with James Donkor, a journalist with Radio Progress in Wa.
As you may know, Donkor was arrested on October 24. According to his own testimony, Donkor was on a visit to the Wa Polytechnic when he saw a large crowd gathering outside. He entered the crowd and saw a man tied to an electric pole. On inquiring, he was told that the police had tied him there for “disrespecting” them. Like the journalist he is, Donkor took a photograph.
For doing his job Donkor was hit, subjected to a body search and handcuffed. He spent the next several hours in a police cell. His private cell phones were seized, and one of them smashed, before he was finally released.
We can not help but see what happened to James Donkor in the light of what happened to our colleagues at Radio Gold FM last August, when three staff members were beaten in their offices. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the raid came after the station interviewed an activist for the ruling National Patriot’s Party who was accused of vote-rigging in local elections. Police denied conducting a raid, saying they had simply visited the station after receiving a robbery report.
We are heartened to hear that in Donkor’s case, Mahmud Khalid, the regional minister, has condemned his mistreatment by local police and ordered an investigation. Ghana is now an exemplar of a modern African democracy, and Mahmud Khalid evidently knows that a free press is a guardian of a democratic nation’s truest values — free speech, free inquiry, free thought.
Respectfully yours,
Norman A. Schorr
Kevin McDermott
Co-chairmen – Freedom of the Press Committee
cc:
Mr. James Donkor
Radio Progress
Mr. Isaac Tetteh
Radio Gold FM
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Hon. Adolphus K. Arthur
Chargé d’Affaires
Embassy of the Republic of Ghana
3512 International Drive, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: (202) 686.4527
Ambassador Leslie K. Christian
Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of the Republic of Ghana to the United Nations
19 East 47th Street
New York, NY 10017
Fax: (212) 751.6743
H.E. Donald Teitelbaum
U.S. Ambassador to Ghana
Embassy of the United States of America
P. O. Box 194
Accra
Ghana
Fax: (011.233.21) 74.13.89
Ghana Journalists Association
P.O.Box 4636
Accra
Ghana
Fax: (011.233.21) 23.46.94
Media Foundation for West Africa
P.O. Box LG 730
30 Duade Street, Kokomlemle
Legon, Accra
Ghana
alerts(@)mediafound.org
Fax: (011.233.21) 22.10.84
The Ghanaian Journal.Com
samuel.ampah@gmail.com
Kofi Thompson
Ghanapolitics
peakofi.thompson@gmail.com