Ghana TV News, 20.07.2010 | | | | News - 21.07.2010 Police Still Chase Ato Kwamena * Source: Daily Guide | The Ghana Police Service is still bent on forcing the acting News Editor of Joy FM, Ato Kwamena Dadzie, to reveal to government the source of a story the station carried recently which has landed him in trouble.
Mr. Dadzie has again been asked to report at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) this morning for further interrogation, after he was arrested and granted bail last Monday but told he would be sent to court this morning.
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), the National Media Commission (NMC) and the Ghana Journalists' Association (GJA) have all expressed shock at the development and condemned the arrest and the intended prosecution of the journalist.
The broadcast journalist and author of Pretending To be President was originally scheduled to appear before court this morning but Police sources say investigators handling the case had been instructed to forward the docket to the Attorney General's Department for advice.
Management of the radio station says they stand by the news editor.
However, signals picked by DAILY GUIDE as at press time yesterday suggested that the police might go ahead and process Mr. Dadzie for court this afternoon, depending on the outcome of his interrogation.
Mr. Dadzie, for close to a week now, had been interrogated at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigative Department (CID) for a news story Joy FM aired that the Ghana Real Estate Developers' Association (GREDA) withdrew its petition against the STX Housing Project from Parliament because of death threats on the lives of the association's executives.
Soon after the story, a deputy Minister for Information, Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, slammed Joy FM over the report and accused the station of causing fear and panic among the investor community.
This was followed by an invitation from the police and they have since been on the neck of the journalist just for him to reveal his source until he was charged last Monday for “causing public fear and panic”.
Head of the Police Public Affairs, DSP Kwesi Ofori, however said the action was not to gag the media but was part of police efforts to protect life and property.
The DSP has also noted that the intention was not to take Mr. Dadzie to court but he did not say whether the charges would be dropped or not.
Meanwhile, Executive Director of the MFWA, Prof. Kwame Karikari, yesterday expressed concern that it was becoming a trend for people to be dragged to court and charged with causing fear and panic.
Prof. Karikari said the development was not in the interest of Ghana's growing democracy and a very bad signal for press freedom.
Within the last five months, two people, mostly opposition activists, have been hauled before court on charges of causing fear and panic, with the last person being 'High Priest' Adu Gyamfi, a Kumasi-based French teacher who said a picture of the president looked like a chimpanzee.
The Chairman of the NMC, Kabral Blay-Amihere, was also quick to speak against the development and warned that Ghana could lose her reputation as a country that believed in press freedom if the trend continued.
The GJA Secretary, Bright Blewu, disclosed that the association was calling an emergency meeting over the development.
The previous NDC administration, under which President Mills was the Vice President, had used the then criminal libel law to gag journalists.
By Halifax Ansah-Addo | Columbia Professor accused of research misconduct/fraud * Source: GNA | Navrongo (UE), July 21, GNA - A Principal Research Investigator, Professor James Philip of the Columbia University, USA, currently working on a research project at the Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC) in the Upper East Region, has been accused of research misconduct and fraud.
The two research programmes under Prof. Philip are; the Mobile Technology for Community Health (MOTECH), which is ongoing and the Navrongo Experiment that was done between 1993 and 2005 in the Kassena Nankana area.
Ms Mame Yaa Busumtwi, a public health specialist, who is making the accusations, spoke to the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga on Tuesday and said that until March 2010, she was the Programme Manager, Communication Director and Editor of the MOTECH Research Newsletter.
She said Prof. Philip asked her to commit fraud by omitting information that would give credit to the sponsors of the Research Programme and rather create the impression that the programme was under the Ghana Health Service (GHS).
"I was persistently ordered to omit information about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the main sponsors of the Research and also other contributors including the Columbia University and the Grameen Foundation from the Research Newsletter", she said.
Ms Busumtwi said she refused because it was unethical to conceal sponsors and significant participants in a research document and so her employment was terminated two days later.
She said studying the Navrongo Experiment, a research carried out under Professor Philip she found out that it was carried out without an Informed Consent Form that should have explained to the women involved exactly what they were involved in, including knowledge of all possible side effects of the family planning methods used.
She said among the various methods used in the research, only Depo Provera was mentioned, and wondered why the others were not written down.
Ms Busumtwi said she had received a lot of information from Health Personnel, who worked with Prof. Philip, claiming that he fabricates research statistics and obtains research data by circumventing conventional ethical protocols and methods.
"Ghana should be seen as a venue of quality verifiable and valid research and not a victim of powerful unscrupulous foreign doctors, who use funding as a bait to skew and fabricate research for their desired outcome", she said.
A statement signed by Dr Abraham Hodgson, Director of the NHRC, refuted allegations levelled against the Centre by Ms Busumtwi that it carried out research where over 1,500 women were used as human subjects in birth control without full disclosure of and informed consent about adverse effects of the vials and oral drugs used.
It stated, "the attention of the Navrongo Health Research Centre and the Upper East Regional Health Directorate has been drawn to out-rightly false, unsubstantiated and libellous comments being made by one Ms. Busumtwi, known to us as a former employee of the Columbia University and one Mr Sedem Amedeke, President and Coordinator of the National Violent Movements of Integrity.
The statement explained that the Navrongo Experiment, officially known as the Navrongo Community Health and Family Planning Project was one of the major studies conducted by the NRHC.
It noted that the study sought to restructure the existing health systems to be able to provide accessible, affordable, efficient and effective services to people, particularly those in rural areas.
It noted that the study adopted an integrated approach to providing health services by relocating Community Health Nurses (CHNs) from the traditional facilities to live and work with rural communities.
The statement indicated that CHNs used registered medications and products approved by the Ghana Health Service for the routine use in the facilities such as injectable contraceptives, other family planning devices and other medication to treat patients, who reported to them, seeking various services including family planning services.
The statement explained that the Navrongo Experiment did not at any time during the period of the study, test any product or drug. It said the import of the study was to determine feasible means of improving access to health services for rural people and to find out if improved access to health care delivery led to an improvement in health status of the people.
It noted that the study was structured in a manner that there was no reason to seek individual informed consent because patients or clients who required health services would normally report at health facilities to be attended to by the health personnel.
The statement stated that there were several publications in peer-reviewed journals arising out of the Navrongo Experiment, which were available on the Internet and that if anybody was in doubt they could cross check that, adding that other sources are freely available at the NHRC.
It said the NHRC had continued to work under difficult circumstances to improve public health in Ghana and beyond and said whilst it welcomes public scrutiny to improve upon health delivery, it would strongly object to misrepresentations and distortions that would undermine the efforts and hard-won reputation and trust the Centre had gained over the years. | | |
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