The Executive Director for Media Foundation for West Africa Sulemana Braimah has observed that the President of Ghana displayed his intolerance for critical voices when he condemned Joy FM for asking critical questions about his government’s flagship programme “Free SHS“.

President Akufo-Addo has accused Joy FM of waging a campaign against his government’s flagship Free Senior High Schools (SHS) policy.

Speaking at a ceremony at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) on Saturday May 29, where an Honorary Doctorate degree was conferred on him, he said that he was under the impression that Free SHS was approved by everyone including the political parties, until he learnt about discussions on the radio station.

“A radio station is currently running a campaign against Free SHS. During the last election, I got the impression that Free SHS was endorsed by all parties and all that was needed to do was keep improving it. Would a spirited defence of Frees SHS constitute an attack on press freedom? I wonder.”

But reacting to this Sulemana Braimah questioned the President on whether he expects only praise singers to be brought unto radio programs.

He accused the president of displaying intolerance with his comment.

He said “It’s intolerance of the highest order when a radio programme that allows people to express their views about a major government policy that affect them is interpreted as a campaign by the radio station against the government policy. What are radio stations and the media in general supposed to do then? Are they supposed to parade only govt praise-singers on programmes? Will that be what the Constitution refers to as holding a government accountable to the people?”

Source: mynewsgh.com