Stakeholders from the media, civil society and academia are in Accra, Ghana, over the threats to press freedom and democratic recession in West Africa.
The conference which opened on Tuesday, October 18, 2022 in the Ghanian capital has participants drawn from all ECOWAS states.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of Media Foundation for West Africa, MFWA, said that the continued threats to media and press freedom in the sub-region could greatly impact on democratic gains, warning that as the media becomes increasingly fragile, civil space was shrinking with attendant consequences.
According to Braimah, with over five coups in the region within a short space, there were growing concerns that needed to be urgently addressed if democratic gains in the sub-region did not wholly crumble.
“Unfortunately, the last few years have seen a significant roll-back of these gains – rising authoritarianism, attacks, and arbitrary arrests as well as detention of journalists and activists have crept back into fashion.
“The resort to constitutional amendments among incumbent Presidents to remove term limits is also becoming a subculture in the region with one such move leading to the coup in Guinea. Other significant indicators of democratic recession in the region include the alarming shrinking civic spaces even in countries like Ghana, Senegal and Cape Verde which used to be press freedom models,” Braimah said.
Also, Prof. H.K. Prempeh, executive director, Centre for Development and Democracy, CDD Ghana, and project director, West Africa Democratic Solidarity Network, WADEMOS, said beyond the worrying coups, the gradual erosion of confidence by the people in democracy over development issues, requires a critical examination to arrest the situation.
Prempeh noted that independent media face threats as democracy faces recession and needs to be protected to be able to continue to inform the citizens and uphold the rule of law and human rights.
