By Rosemary Wayo, GNA
Tamale, July 18, GNA – The Media Research Institute (MRi) has described the one-year jail sentence handed to TikToker Camilla Alhassan as alarming and harsh and appealed to President John Dramani Mahama to grant her a presidential pardon.
The MRi also appealed to President Mahama to exercise his constitutional power of pardon, as he did in the case of the Montie Three in 2016.
The appeal was contained in a statement, signed by Dr Daniel Nkrumah, the Executive Director of the MRi, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, in Tamale.
An Accra Circuit Court convicted Camilla Alhassan on charges of offensive conduct and publication of false news.
The statement said Camilla’s comments were despicable by all standards but argued that a one-year prison term was “Tantamount to killing an ant with a sledgehammer.”
It said three contemnors were sentenced to four months’ imprisonment by the Supreme Court for scandalising the court but were granted a presidential pardon after serving only one month.
The statement said, “They were sentenced on July 27, 2016 and pardoned on August 22, 2016. Almost 10 years after that reprieve, we are still in the throes of dangerous political rhetoric.”
The statement said the country’s political space was riddled with wild political rhetoric from activists on both sides of the divide yet the law was not applied equally.
It cited two recent examples, which included how Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the Minority Leader in Parliament, was condemned by the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) in May, this year, for describing a Circuit Court Judge as an NDC Judge, who should be ashamed of himself.
It said the GBA called his conduct unprofessional and unethical yet he was not cited for contempt.
It added that “In September, 2024 Malik Basintale, then Deputy National Communications Officer of the NDC, also faced criticism after alleging that pork was the favourite meat of Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, a Muslim. Former Minister Atta Akyea was also quoted urging voters to choose a distinguished economist over a drunkard. No arrests or prosecutions followed in those cases.”
It said, “Placing such selective application of the law against the background that Camilla pleaded guilty, we find the sentence alarming and harsh.”
The statement said it was becoming alluring for law enforcers to apply two sets of laws; one that cleared the powerful and another that dragged the poor in the mud.
It said jailing Camilla set a dangerous precedent and threatened free speech in the country.
The MRI said “the criminalisation of speech relative to the poor in society attacks the very foundation of democracy.
It added that, “Democracy is not built solely on the authority of the powerful elite but on universal suffrage and the resilience of the poor masses.”
It acknowledged the need for decency in political discourse and mentioned that actions to curb excesses must not be seen as extreme and high-handed.
It called on the government to resource the National Commission for Civic Education and urged faith-based organisations and civil society groups to intensify civic education.
GNA
Edited by Eric K Amoh/Benjamin Mensah
Reporter’s email: [email protected]