Communications Minister Samuel Nartey George marked Ghana’s best press freedom ranking in five years by defending a free press, while warning that misinformation threatens stability and pressing for tighter accountability.
George spoke at the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) World Press Freedom Day awards ceremony in Accra, standing in for President John Dramani Mahama. The ceremony came as Ghana sat at 39th of 180 countries in the 2026 Reporters Without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, up 13 places from 52nd in 2025 and its strongest score, 72.20, in five years.
He called a free press a pillar of democracy rather than a privilege, and said no journalist had been killed, exiled, or silenced under Mahama, a record he offered as proof that a government can govern without muzzling the media. Scrutiny, he argued, strengthens institutions and guards public funds rather than threatening leaders.
Then he drew a line. Not everything published or broadcast counts as journalism, he said, and some of it is built to spread fear and division. In an age where social media moves falsehood fast, he warned, bad information can inflame communities, derail public health efforts, and endanger national security. “Press freedom does not mean freedom from accountability,” he said, adding that regulatory rules are needed to protect the public. He urged the GJA to tighten editorial standards and invest in fact checking.
That balance carries weight coming from his ministry. In 2025 it sanctioned a number of broadcasters over regulatory breaches, action George defended at the time as a fight against lawlessness rather than against free speech.
Independent monitors were more guarded about the ranking. The Media Research Institute called the gain encouraging but short of Ghana’s potential, pointing to weak scores on the economic, social, and security measures behind the headline number. The GJA’s own general secretary described the rise as a mix of progress and fragility, citing financially exposed newsrooms and lingering risks to journalist safety.
The improvement also runs against a bleak global picture. The RSF report recorded press freedom at its lowest in 25 years, with more than half of the countries assessed rated difficult or worse for journalists.
George tied the country’s media health to digital access, describing the internet as the printing press of the day and casting investment in broadband and digital skills as a matter of democracy as much as economics. He pledged to widen access while protecting online freedoms.
The gains are real, but by the journalists’ own account they remain unfinished, resting on a media economy that is still vulnerable and on protections that work better on paper than on the ground.
