The Judicial Service has rejected the apology on a false publication by Ghanaweb concerning the alleged transfer of the judge hearing Kennedy Agyapong’s contempt case.
The online portal carried a story on October 16, 2020 captioned, “Judge in Kennedy Agyapong’s case transferred outside Accra.”
In a statement signed by Justice Cynthia Pamela Addo, the Judicial Secretary yesterday said the false publication has caused incalculable damage on the image of the third arm of government, especially as it prepares to host Commonwealth Judges and Magistrates Conference.
The statement added that the publication was false and that Ghanaweb failed to observe the basic journalistic ethics of cross-checking facts with the Service.
Prior to this statement, Ghanaweb pulled down the story and rendered an apology to the Judicial Service.
But Mrs Pamela said in the statement that the apology did not deal with the matter in the manner it required compared to the damage it caused the Chief Justice, Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah and the Judicial Service.
In consequence, therefore, the statement demanded Ghanaweb to apologise unreservedly and indicate in the apology that the story was completely false and failed to crosscheck the facts from the Judicial Service as the ethics of responsible journalism requires.
The statement demanded Ghanaweb to state the fact that the judge in question has not and has never been transferred as the story suggested.
The statement asked Ghanaweb to publish the apology in the national dailies and on its website giving the same prominence the first story had.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has in a ruling asked Justice Wuntah Wuni to stop conducting proceedings on the contempt case.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
