SECTOR 1 in such cases have the potential to ruin a business, as the case could have been when the Mamponghene, a traditional chief also known as Daasebre Nana Osei Bonsu II, sued the Daily Dispatch over a story published in 2003. The case dragged on for eight years, and the Mamponghene eventually lost the case. Essentially, the outcome of a libel or defamation case is left to the judge in each case, and “it would take a human rights-conscious judge to speak to this issue.” Needless to say, “Ghanaians will agree that there is a need to review these processes, section 208 of the Criminal Code, and the issue of contempt and what it constitutes. We can’t leave this to a judge to determine.” The issues around Section 208 of the Criminal Code, as well as the question of what constitutes contempt, have been especially concerning since the arrests of Ken Koranchie, editor of the Daily Searchlight newspaper, and Stephen Atubiga, a member of the communications team of the NDC in June 2013. Atubiga was sentenced to three days in prison, while Koranchie was sentenced to 10 days’ imprisonment, for making comments or publishing information that the court described as “contemptuous”. There are no legal requirements that restrict entry into the journalistic profession. Some panellists felt that the National Media Commission (NMC) should be empowered to determine who comes into the fold (“much like entering the medical or law profession”). They were reminded, however, that international law recognises that journalism is unlike any other profession, and is the only profession protected in the Constitution. “So when you want to stifle this, it means stifling a constitutional right.” Section 280 of the Criminal Code, titled ‘Publication or Sale of Obscene Book, etc.’ criminalises the publication or sale of “any obscene book, writing, or representation”. Illustrations in this section include: A. publishes a book for the use of physicians or surgeons, or of persons seeking medical or surgical information. Whatever may be the subjects with which the book deals, if they are treated with as much decency subject admits, A. is not guilty of an offence against this section. B. publishes extracts from the book mentioned in the last illustration, arranged or printed in such a manner as to give unnecessary prominence to indecent matters. If the Court or jury thinks that such publication is calculated unnecessarily and improperly to excite passion, or to corrupt morals, B. ought to be convicted. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER GHANA 2013 17