Former Deputy Minister of Communications Felix Kwakye Ofosu
Former Deputy Minister of Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has blamed the media for allowing the “misconduct” of the Assin Central Member of Parliament (MP) to fester on for long.
He has, therefore, suggested that the media in Ghana gang up to indirectly declare Kennedy Ohene Agyapong persona non grata.
Mr. Kwakye Ofosu expressed these remarks on Saturday, July 17 when he appeared on The Keypoints on TV3/3FM.
“Unlike many other sectors of society, the media have far more capacity to wage your own campaign and speak for yourself than any other group or entity that I am aware of.
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“You have such power as to call out wrongdoing and misconduct to put people who are errant in check than any other segment of society, so I cannot imagine how the media and media personalities allow themselves to fall prey to Mr. Agyapong’s misconduct over the period.”
He cited how social media network Twitter took on former US President Donald Trump and recently condemned events in Nigeria, leading to its ban by that country’s president, Muhammadu Buhari.
Mr. Kwakye Ofosu’s comments come in the wake of threats on Multimedia Group Limited’s Erastus Asare Donkor by Ken Agyapong over the journalist’s reportage and subsequent witness on the Ejura unrest of June 29.
During a programme on his private television station on Friday, July 9, Ken Agyapong is said to have called for the beating up of the Multimedia Group Limited’s journalist in a similar fashion that led to the murder of Ahmed Hussein-Suale in 2019.
A petition has since been sent to the US Embassy by pressure group ASEPA to have Mr Agyapong banned from entering the US while Multimedia Group Limited has also petitioned the Ashanti Regional Command of the Ghana Police Service, copying personalities such as the Chief of Staff, Speaker of Parliament and Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.
Responding to suggestions that Ken Agyapong uses his private media house to spew his threats, Mr Kwakye Ofosu said the media can come together and blackout the maverick New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP.
“There is little you can do about his ownership of that station. However, the rest of you can band together and isolate him such that he cannot get any oxygen to express those sentiments outside of that niche that he has. At the very least, it will limit his ability to spread this kind of hate-speech and language.”
He added that it will not take that much “for all of you media houses in Ghana to, in solidarity with your colleague Erastus Asare Donkor, decide that you have issued a blackout on Kennedy Agyapong on your networks, that he is not to appear on any network apart from his own”.
“If you took that step, it will send such a strong signal to him and all those who support his misconduct and misbehaviour.”