• INCIDENTS
    • Nigeria
      • South West
      • South South
      • South East
      • North Central
      • North East
      • North West
    • West Africa
      • Senegal
      • Benin Republic
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Cote d’Ivoire
      • Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea-Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger Republic
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • NEWS
    • Defending the Civic Space – Blog
    • AML – CFT NEWS
    • Foreign News
    • Local News
    • Videos
  • RESOURCES
    • Policy briefs
    • Restrictive legislations
    • Press statements
    • INFOGRAPHICS
    • Publications
    • Newsletters
  • ACTION GROUP
    • Join
    • Steering Committee
    • Members
    • Group Activities
    • Member Activities
  • SPECIAL CAUSES
    • COVID-19
      • General News
      • Incidents
      • Eyewitness Reports
    • #ENDSARS
      • General News
      • Missing Persons
      • Gallery
      • Trends & Hashtags
  • CSR-HUB
    • Blog
    • Upcoming Events
Menu
  • INCIDENTS
    • Nigeria
      • South West
      • South South
      • South East
      • North Central
      • North East
      • North West
    • West Africa
      • Senegal
      • Benin Republic
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Cote d’Ivoire
      • Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea-Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger Republic
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • NEWS
    • Defending the Civic Space – Blog
    • AML – CFT NEWS
    • Foreign News
    • Local News
    • Videos
  • RESOURCES
    • Policy briefs
    • Restrictive legislations
    • Press statements
    • INFOGRAPHICS
    • Publications
    • Newsletters
  • ACTION GROUP
    • Join
    • Steering Committee
    • Members
    • Group Activities
    • Member Activities
  • SPECIAL CAUSES
    • COVID-19
      • General News
      • Incidents
      • Eyewitness Reports
    • #ENDSARS
      • General News
      • Missing Persons
      • Gallery
      • Trends & Hashtags
  • CSR-HUB
    • Blog
    • Upcoming Events

Ghana Police Detain 2 Citi FM Journalists, Beat 1 in Custody

  • Date of Occurrence
    May 25, 2021
  • Details
  • Comments 0
  • prev
  • next
  • Bookmark
  • Share
  • Report
  • Leave a review
  • prev
  • next
Image
Description

On May 11, police officers in Accra, the capital, detained and beat Kudah, a reporter with the privately owned Citi FM broadcaster, according to the journalist, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app and recounted the incident in an interview with Citi FM.

Officers confronted Kudah outside an office of the Ministry of National Security, where they accused him of photographing government vehicles that were allegedly purchased at inflated prices, the journalist said. They then took Kudah to a local police station, where officers took turns slapping and punching him in the back of his head, deleted his photos, and took him outside where an officer kicked him, Kudah told CPJ.

During his detention, the officers saw on Kudah’s phone that he had forwarded some of his images to Addo, also a Citi FM reporter, Kudah said. Pretending to be Kudah, the officers messaged Addo and lured her to Citi FM’s headquarters, where they arrested her at gunpoint, Kudah told CPJ.

The officers then took both journalists to the local police station, deleted photos from their phones, and released them without charge, according to Kudah and Addo, who also spoke to Citi FM in that interview.

“Ghanaian authorities must identify and hold to account the police officers who assaulted Citi FM journalist Caleb Kudah; arrested Kudah and colleague Zoe Abu-Baidoo Addo; and deleted photos from their phones,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “In recent years, journalists in Ghana have too often been subjected to indiscriminate arrests, brutality, and device seizures by security officers.”

Kudah told CPJ that the officers brought him in handcuffs to the Citi FM office when they arrested Addo, and then held him in a cell with about 15 others while they deleted the photos from her phone.

He said that his detention lasted about five hours overall, and he was let go after the intervention of Edward Kwaku Asomani, the deputy coordinator of national security, and his senior colleagues at Citi FM.

On May 18, a representative of the Ministry of National Security contacted Citi FM and said that the ministry was investigating his arrest and alleged abuse in detention, Kudah said.

In the days after the beatings, Kudah felt pains on his back and his lower left ribs, but he said the pain had subsided by the time he spoke to CPJ on May 19.

Details
  • Date of Occurrence
    2021-05-25
  • Perpetrator
    Ghanaian police officer
  • Source
    https://cpj.org/2021/05/ghana-police-detain-2-citi-fm-journalists-beat-1-in-custody/
Region
  • Ghana
Rights & Freedom Violated
  • Press Freedom
Gender of Victim(s)
  • Female
  • Male
Mode of Attacks
  • Forced Disappearances, Unlawful Arrests and Detention
  • Unlawful Killings, Physical Attacks, Torture, Degrading Treatment
  • Comments are closed.
  • You May Also Be Interested In

    ASEPA’s Mensah Thompson Detained by Police; Charged with Publication of False News

      Feb09
      • Press Freedom

      Police Probe Alleged Assault of Journalist by CID Officer

        Jan04
        • Press Freedom

        We Respect Our Chiefs but Ghana is not a Chiefdom – Akoto Ampaw to Kumasi Traditional Council

          Sep06
          • Press Freedom

          This site is supported by:

          FGHR-150x50
          OSF-150x50
          fh
          ford-foundation-logo-150x50

          Closing Civic Spaces is a publicly-available database on closing spaces for civic engagement and civil society in Nigeria & West Africa. Data  is compiled from public sources.

          • +234-814-500-0067
          • Lagos, Nigeria

          Stay informed

          Get incidents as they happen

          Support our campaign to protect the civil society space

          Donate Now
          Donate to Defend the Civil Society Space

          © 2019 Closing Civic Spaces by Spaces for Change. Spaces for Change is a member of the Global NPO Coalition on FATF.

          Images, texts, & other forms of content are copyright of their respective owners.

          Cart

          • Facebook
          • Twitter
          • WhatsApp
          • Telegram
          • Pinterest
          • LinkedIn
          • Tumblr
          • VKontakte
          • Mail
          • Copy link