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The International Standards Journalists Association (ISJA) has dragged the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana to court for demanding that journalists pay for their accreditation to cover the December 7 elections.
“Accreditation tags will be given to only those who have formally applied for them and for a fee to be determined by the Commission,” a statement issued by the election management body said.
Some media stakeholders have however raised issues with the decision, with the ISJA subsequently dragging the EC to court over the matter.
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The President of the group, Dr. Nana Oppong had earlier said they will not pay for the accreditation but would cover the elections.
He said “we will cover the election but we will not pay the money that the EC is demanding and we are going to see what decision the EC is going to take against journalists who intend to cover free and fair and peaceful election in accordance with the constitution of the country.”
READ ALSO: Journalists threaten to sue EC over accreditation fee
“We have options; one of the options is going to court, the reason why we haven’t gone to court is that the EC is already embroiled in too many court cases and what we think is that it doesn’t need another court case. What we need now is common sense to prevail and if that doesn’t work then obviously we would have to go to court,” he said.
He argued that the EC has been given huge sums of money from both government and donor partners to conduct the elections hence demading money from journalists for accreditation is not necessary.
Click here for the full suit by the ISJA: ISJA SUIT.pdf