GLC summons media house over Ghana School of Law mass failure story

The General Legal Council (GLC), under the directive of the Chief Justice, has invited the Management of ABC News Ghana to appear before it regarding an interview it had with a former Director of the Ghana School of Law, Mr Kwaku Ansah-Asare, ABC News can report.

The invitation, which will see the Management of the media organisation appear before a Committee of the Council on Tuesday, October 29, 2019, is in connection with the recent mass failures that rocked the Ghana Law School.

Out of 1,820 prospective students who sat for the Ghana Law School entrance exams, only 128 reportedly passed, indicating that more than 90 per cent of the candidates failed to obtain the requisite marks to secure admission.

The development resurrected already existing public concerns about legal education in Ghana with some persons calling for a thorough probe into circumstances leading to such volume of failures annually.

Speaking to ABC News Mr Ansah-Asare, whom as a former Director of the Ghana Law School, deemed well placed to offer an informed perspective on the subject matter, ascribed a number of reasons to the recurrent failures, blaming the General Legal Council as being responsible for the norm.

“So members of the General Legal Council to the extent that have arrogated to themselves powers they don’t have. What they are trying to do is just perpetrating fraud on unsuspecting students. You came and write the exams and you will pass and you will pass only 128. We should go about this law school saga with a human face,” he said.

Coming at a time when the Freedom of the Press and the Right to Freedom of Speech as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution has been mentioned by some media watchers as under threat, the invitation by the GLC comes as a surprise to some analysts.

Ghana dropped four points in the latest ranking of the 2019 World Press Freedom Index as it moved from the rank of 23 to 27 from the previous year.

The country has also lost its status as Africa’s best-ranked country in the World Press Freedom Index, compiled annually by Reporters Without Borders (RWB), with many fearing that the situation could worsen if the constitutional rights of the press was not respected particularly by persons and institutions who wield some form of power to subtly control the press.

But commenting on the issue, a member of the management team at ABC News, Kwabena Kyenkyenhene Boateng said he does not see the development as an attack on press freedom adding that the organisation will honour the invitation respectfully.

“I don’t see this as an attack on press freedom. I only see a situation where the Council needs further information on a story a subsidiary of the group has put out hence the invitation. We shall respectfully honour this invitation and ensure that we bring finality to the matter. We shall continue to put out compelling content to the many who turn to our platforms on television, print and online for credible news. We are on the side of truth and we report nothing but the truth so we are not worried at all.”

Managers of the Organisation are expected to appear before the GLC on Tuesday, October 29, 2019.



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