Court Discharges Journalist Arrested For Filming, Videoing Proceedings Without Authority

An Accra High Court has discharged Mr Sacut Dennis Amenga-Etego, a Freelance Journalist, arrested on the orders of the Court for filming and/or videoing the proceedings without authority.

The National Investigation Bureau (NIB) by the orders of the Court investigated and produced a report.

The Court presided over by Justice Mrs Lydia Osei Marfo said, “I have not cited Sacut for any contempt of the Court. I have no desire to do so although he has bruised my ego.”

The Judge said, “I will hereby discharge him to go out of my Court as a free man. I am very grateful to his lawyers as well for the respect they have given to this Court.”

Mrs Marfo said she would have caused the journalist to read a little bit of what he had said on his WhatsApp page against her as a person but for the respect, she has for her learned friends, who have come on his behalf, “I will not let him read it.”

She, however, wanted to capture an excerpt of it herself and in one chat he said, “Judge is clearly against the state prosecutor.”

She said in another, he went like, “but she is biased against the foreigners” and then he went ahead to say, “she is using the fact that they are foreigners.”

The journalist also wrote “hopefully she does not oppose bail application” and then another, the judge said which she finds as interesting was “she is a small girl.”

Mrs Marfo said the journalist also continue to write that “she is granting bail”, “she also refuses them bail, of course on the basis of being foreigners”, “she is a bitch”, among others.

The judge said there was some concern raised by the NIB officials and that was to allow them to continue to have custody of the phone on which the offensive conversations were taken and some other device belonging to the journalist in question and to compel him to also give them the password to conduct further investigations as well.

She said for the exercise, “we are doing today, I am unable to grant the request, however, the investigators know the right process to have these gadgets investigated.