Arrests over false publications risk reviving criminal libel – Sulemana Braimah

Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, has warned that Ghana risks reintroducing the repealed criminal libel law "through the back door" if the police continue arresting people over alleged false publications instead of allowing civil legal processes to take their course.

Speaking on Joy FM's Super Morning Show on Monday, July 20, during a discussion on press freedom following the one-year jail sentence handed to a TikToker for publishing false information, Mr Braimah said recent police actions resemble the criminal libel regime that Ghana abolished more than two decades ago.

He explained that under the former criminal libel regime, cases involving allegedly defamatory statements became criminal matters prosecuted by the state rather than civil disputes between individuals.