The President, John Dramani Mahama has questioned the rising number of arrests of social media users accused of insulting or making incendiary comments about him, arguing that some of the remarks cited are too trivial to justify police action.
Speaking on the margins of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, the President said he often first learns of such arrests through social media posts.
His comments come against the backdrop of a series of arrests targeting users accused of publishing abusive, offensive or inflammatory content directed at politicians and public officials.
“Really, I don’t mind the insults, but all of us have to decide what do we want to do with TikTok?” Mahama said.
“I can tell the IGP, we can go to cabinet and say ‘lay off, let anybody insult anybody, let’s leave it open, or no arrests for anything they say.’ We can do that. But is that what we want,?” he questioned.
The President proposed that the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) convene a broad stakeholder workshop or forum to determine how the country should handle content on new media platforms.
He noted that his Executive Secretary had already written to the GJA on the matter.
“I said what we should do is, Ghana Journalists Association—you saw the letter from my Executive Secretary—Media Foundation for West Africa, bring all the stakeholders together and hold a workshop or a forum and let’s all collectively take a decision on what we want to do with the new media. Should the police get involved or they shouldn’t get involved? How do we regulate it? You come out and tell us,” he stated.
While stressing that government must strike a balance between addressing genuinely harmful online material and safeguarding freedom of expression, Mahama tasked the two organisations with leading a national conversation.
The engagement, he suggested, should clarify the boundaries between legitimate criticism and political expression on one hand, and hate speech, threats, incitement and other unlawful conduct on the other.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
