Ghana's bad sports not playing the game

Security guards for Asante Kotoko Football Club, a Kumasi-based team, barred Ian Motey, a correspondent of The Ghanaian Times, a state-owned daily newspaper, from covering their league match. Apparently they were upset over what they viewed as the newspaper’s biased reporting and, it would seem, Motey’s own reporting.

The guards also threatened to bar all journalists of The Ghanaian Times from ever covering their games.

According to Motey, the guards, who were dressed in the team's colours, told him he was not welcome at the stadium as the team’s management had given instructions that journalists of the newspaper be prevented from covering their games. He said that about five guards asked him to leave and told him that even if he purchased a ticket, they could not guarantee his safety.

Motey attributes his predicament to a story he wrote which was published in the 23 March edition of the newspaper, reporting on an earlier harassment of journalists by the guards on 22 March.

By courtesy of Media Foundation for West Africa