Lawyer and senior New Patriotic Party (NPP) member Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has fiercely defended free speech, commending Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin for challenging a judge’s recent decision to imprison an individual over public utterances.
Otchere-Darko warned that the judicial handling of the case risks chilling public discourse and creating a culture of fear among ordinary citizens, particularly the tech-savvy younger generation.
He stressed that leadership requires courage and timidity is never an option in a functional democracy, highlighting that safeguarding human rights demands leaders of conviction.
Urging the public not to view the controversy through a narrow partisan lens of NPP versus NDC, Otchere-Darko stated that the judicial overreach poses a broader threat to society.
He noted that in an era where Gen Z eagerly exercises free expression on social media, any systemic attempt to frighten citizens into silence is dangerous.
He cautioned that while a political activist is targeted today, journalists, students, and ordinary Ghanaians with smartphones could face similar censorship tomorrow.
While maintaining that the law must deal firmly with actual wrongdoing, Otchere-Darko insisted that legal actions should never compromise fundamental human rights, due process, or democratic freedoms.
He concluded that justice must not only be done, but must be manifestly seen to be done to preserve the integrity of the legal system.
Below is the full opinion by the lawyer
Leadership requires courage. Timidity can never be a leadership option. Certainly not in a democracy.
Protecting human rights and guarding the dignity of our legal system require men and women of courage, conviction and patriotic verve.
That is why I doff my hat to Alexander Afenyo-Markin for taking on the judge who displayed such troubling zeal in endorsing the imprisonment of free speech.
It is mistaken to view this through the narrow prism of NPP versus NDC, or ruling party versus opposition. The implications are far broader than partisan politics. In a zeitgeist where Gen Zs cherish and actively exercise the freedom to speak their minds on social media, we must be careful of any actions by the system that appear designed to frighten citizens into silence.
Today it may be a political activist. Tomorrow it could be the journalist, the radio commentator, the student, the taxi driver, or the ordinary young Ghanaian with a smartphone and an opinion.
Let the law deal firmly with those who fall foul of it. But let it never do so by compromising the protection of fundamental human rights, due process, and the freedoms that hold our democracy together. Justice must be done and seen to be manifestly done.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
