Ghanaians urged not to make complaints against judges in the media

Justice Denis Adjei, an Appeal Court Judge, has encouraged the people to ensure that complaints against members of the judiciary to were made to the Public Complaints Unit of the Judicial Service.    

These, he advised, should not be in the media and said doing that, would not be helpful to the nation’s justice delivery system.     

Addressing a two-day training workshop organized for journalists in Kumasi, he asked that such complaints should also be written and must not be oral.       

The programme was held under the theme “Responsible and objective court reporting before, during and after election 2016: the media and the law”.        

It was organized by the Communication Department of the Judicial Service in partnership with the Judicial Training Institute (JTI) with support from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).       

The goal was to aid them to have better understanding of legal terminologies, court room etiquette, contempt of court and the role of the public complaints unit in effective justice delivery.       

Justice Adjei, touched on contempt of court and said this was meant to help protect the sanctity of the court and not for the fun of punishing anybody.

The court, which was the place where people, especially the weak sought redress must not be brought into disrepute so that the rule of law would be preserved, he added.        

Justice Samuel Boakye-Yiadom, a Justice of the High Court, repeated the assurance of speedy trial of all electoral cases.       

He said in line with the directive by the Chief Justice, these would take precedence over all other cases.      

Nana Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng, Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC) advised journalists to make sure they reported accurately on court proceedings. 

He spoke of the need for them to uphold high standards of professionalism and avoid doing anything unethical.

Source: GNA