The Member of Parliament for Ejisu, Kwabena Boateng, has also condemned the recent assault on a JoyNews journalist and his interviewee by a military officer, describing it as an attack on one of the pillars of democratic governance.
Speaking on JoyNews' Newsfile programme, Mr Boateng underscored the constitutional role of the media as the fourth estate of the realm, arguing that any assault on a journalist should be treated with the same gravity as an attack on any other arm of government. "This democracy that we are practicing, without the media, I don't know what we are doing with democracy, if we sit in parliament and pass all the laws, the oversight, the Executive also does all that they have to do, and there is no what we have described as the fourth estate of the realm to take it out there to break it down for the consumption of the general public, then our democracy hasn't come to where we expect it to be." "So an assault on a journalist is like an assault on any arm of government, which shouldn't be taken lightly," he stressed.
The MP warned that if the country allows such assaults to go unchecked, it undermines democratic credentials both locally and on the global stage. "Anybody observing internationally and sees that journalists have been beaten in a jurisdiction, obviously, what it means is that you are not serious about your democracy," he said.
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