Accra, Nov 17, GNA – Media expert Mr Kojo Acquah Yankah has said the late President Jerry John Rawlings was instrumental in establishing press freedom in Ghana and asked journalists to work hard to advance the freedoms.
Simply called Kojo Yankah, the communication expert observed that it was through Rawlings that the private media came to force in the second part of the 1990s, “but some private press did not have it easy.
“Even public media people had to be careful as there were unpredictability and controversies.”
Also,” there was some kind of restriction of press freedom even under constitutional democracy,” Mr Yankah said, adding, that “press freedom in every situation is relative.
“The press should fight for its freedom and not just accept what is given by the Government.”
In a telephone interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on his association with the late former President and reaction to his death and Ghana’s media landscape, Mr Yankah described media pluralism as good but it had its a way of commercializing news.
The communications consultant, writer, and Founder of the African University College of Communication (AUCC) and former Director of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) said he however found commercializing of news dangerous because “once news gets commercialized, the value will be determined by how much it costs.”
Mr Yankah, served as two-term Member of Parliament (MP) for Agona East, with one party in parliament, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and later the same party as majority from January 1993 to January 6, 2000,
In November 1999, he resigned from the Rawlings-led Government as Minister for Ashanti Region “for very personal reasons” but continued to serve as MP.
Ghana is in tears and has declared seven days of mourning former President Rawlings, an iconic political figure who died Thursday, November 12, 2020, in the capital, Accra, at the age of 73.
The former President, alleging government corruption, twice seized power in military coups, in June 1979 and December 31, 1981, and later went on to win two terms as president before leaving office in 2001.
Late former President Rawlings, who died in less than a month after burying his mother Victoria Agbotui, until his death, continued to hold political influence in Ghana while assuming diplomatic duties.
Mr Yankah, a former Editor of Daily Graphic, the national flagship newspaper narrated an odyssey of a tortuous journey as he held various positions under Rawlings as Head of State, and President, and declared that “working under Rawlings was never predictable.”
He described late former President Rawlings as a courageous leader who pursued the principles of probity, accountability, and transparency, and always stood for a cause.
Moreover, the late former President, Mr Yankah said, had a passion for the ordinary man and came to be the defender of the underdog; and a Pan African in words and deeds as he got the sub-regional body ECOWAS to go to Liberia to stop the carnage in the wake of the Liberian civil war.
Aside from seeing to the establishment of the W .E. B. Du Bois Centre for Pan African Culture in Accra, late former President also saw the birth of the Pan African Historical Theatre Project now known as PANAFEST, a cultural event held in Ghana every two years for Africans and people of African descent.
First held in 1992, the idea of this festival is to promote and enhance unity, Pan-Africanism, and the development of the continent of Africa itself and also pursued grassroots and participatory decision making in governance.
Mr Yankah said however that: “He did not explain to me why I was moved from the Ashanti Region. Working under Rawlings was never predictable, but I have put everything in my strides. I didn’t hate him.”
Mr Yankah said he was an active and practicing journalist in 1979, and followed the late Jerry Rawlings up when he staged a mutiny in 1979.
“I followed on until he came again on December 31, 1981,” Mr Yankah said, adding that in early in 1982, he was invited to Gondar Barracks in Burma Camp (which was the headquarters of the then military government the Provisional National Defence Council).
“I was requested if I would work in the press office, and I responded “yes’.”
According to Mr Yankah, he was then made Editor of the Daily Graphic, and served in that capacity for two years.
On the circumstances leading to his exit as Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Yankah said the late Head of State Rawlings was not happy with a story the Daily Graphic published on the front page of the paper, in connection with a confession the late Amartey Kwei made in connection with the murder of some three High Court judges and a retired army officer in 1982.
Mr Yankah said the late former Head of State called a meeting of Editors and played back a recording of a tape of that confession.
In the recording, according to Mr Yankah, Amartey Kwei pleaded with Captain Kojo Tsikata to forgive him for linking him to the murder, which he (Amartey Kwei) said Captain Tsikata said was not involved.
“I published the story on the front page of the Daily Graphic, but Rawlings did not like that. So he sent Joyce Aryee, then Secretary for Information to ask me to go on leave,” Yankah recalled, adding “I never met Jerry Rawlings, though that was not a pleasant moment for me”
Mr Yankah said, he was later made Director of the GIJ, and later served as Ashanti Regional Minister during the democratic era.
“I resigned from Government service, but in spite of everything, I never felt bitter about anything,” he said, and noted,” Rawlings left a legacy, however, conflicted, there are positive sides that will live forever.”
GNA