31/03/2023
Journalist in custody for publishing "false news about MacDan"
The Tema Circuit Court has remanded the Deputy Station Coordinator of Radio Ada, Noah Dameh, for publishing “false news” about businessman Daniel McKorley (McDan), whose company has been given the concession to mine salt in Ada.
Noah was remanded in the custody of the Tema Habour police on March 30, 2023, and is expected to reappear before the court on April 13, 2023.
His lawyer, Samuel Ofosu, told The Fourth Estate that after Noah was discharged in December last year because the court lacked jurisdiction in dealing with the charges proffered against him.
He was charged with the publication of false news contrary to section 208 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).
However, immediately after he walked out of the courtroom, the police arrested him and granted him a police enquiry bail.
“Curiously, they had refiled the case under a different section of the law which makes publishing false news a misdemeanour,” the lawyer said.
“Apparently, they had appeared before the court three times. The difficulty here is that we had no notification of this second suit because if we had, we would have appeared in court, as we’ve done in the earlier suit. Mr Dameh has always appeared in court to stand trial,” he said.
After the police failed to notify him of their latest case against him, Noah’s lawyer said they had an unusual call to action.
The person who stood surety for Noah was served a notice ordering him to produce Noah in court on Thursday, March 30, 2023.
That was done. However, the court remanded him.
Noah’s colleague at Radio Ada, Gideon Amanor Dzeagu, who is also the Head of the Programme, told The Fourth Estate that the police prosecutor had alleged in court that “he went looking for Noah on two occasions in Ada but did not find him.”
Based on that, the prosecutor asked that Noah should be remanded so he could be at the next court session.
The presiding judge agreed to it.The story cont..