Ghana remains 26th on Press Freedom Index

The advocacy group, Reporters Without Borders, has ranked Ghana 26th in this year’s World Press Freedom index.

This means that Ghana’s position remains unchanged from that of last year’s rankings.
The world rankings were announced on Wednesday May 3 to mark the annual World Press Freedom Day, observed around the world to celebrate the work of journalists.

In its country report for Ghana, Reporters Without Borders said: “General elections were held in December 2016 without major incidents or media freedom violations.

Ghana is regarded as one of the most democratic countries in Africa, and Chapter 12 of its 1992 constitution guarantees media pluralism and independence. Thanks to extensive use of mobile phones, a great deal of news and information circulates online.

Ghana’s image was tarnished by the arrests of journalists and raids on newspaper that began occurring under former President John Dramani Mahama in 2014. Articles in the criminal code penalizing “false news” are sometimes abused in order to harass journalists.”

Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands are ranked in the top five respectively in the world.

The least ranked countries from the very bottom are, North Korea, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Syria and China.