Free speech: MFWA slams 'weaponisation' of state laws

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has strongly condemned what it describes as the accelerating "weaponisation" of specific legal statutes by state security agencies to suppress free expression and press freedom in the country. In a comprehensive situational statement released on Thursday, 21 May 2026, the regional media watchdog sounded an alarm over the tactical deployment of Section 76 of the Electronic Communications Act, 2008 (Act 775), alongside Sections 207 and 208 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29). The foundation warned that the current pattern of enforcement is actively contributing to the criminalisation of speech in Ghana.

The MFWA presented comparative tracking data spanning the current and previous political administrations, exposing a sharp, rapid escalation in speech-related detentions. It has documented 14 arrests linked to the application of these laws within the first 16 months of the current National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, which took office in January 2025. By contrast, only eight arrests under the same legal provisions were recorded over the entire eight-year tenure of the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) government led by former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The MFWA noted that this trend reflects a "disturbing rise" in the discriminatory and disproportionate application of the provisions.

The media rights group highlighted a glaring contradiction between the current wave of arrests and the historical rhetoric of President John Dramani Mahama, who had been a vocal critic of state-sponsored censorship while leading the opposition. The MFWA recalled that President Mahama had warned in a publicised 2022 open letter addressed to then-President Nana Akufo-Addo that using the police and courts to silence political dissent was an authoritarian