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The Fourth Estate’s Manasseh Azure Awuni has had his work tagged as “false misrepresentation” for the second time in his career after his latest exposé.
The latest investigation piece by the Fourth Estate titled, ‘The GH¢ 3 Billion Lie’, accused the Ministry of Finance of awarding a $100 million 10 year contract to Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML), to monitor Upstream Petroleum Production and to Audit the value chain of Minerals and Metals Resources.
The investigation raised concerns about SML’s lack of experience in the petroleum industry and also getting paid for no work done.
Responding to the claims, the Ghana Revenue Authority and SML stated that Manasseh deliberately misrepresented the contract details, emphasising that the contract was for five years, not the reported ten years.
They also accused Manasseh of “redacting and manipulating information to create a false narrative”.
Dismissing claims made in the documentary by Manasseh Azure Awuni, SML challenged him to produce any contract evidence supporting the assertion of a 10-year agreement.
They also categorically denied receiving $100 million annually from its contract, labeling such claims as “purely a figment of the author’s imagination and not factual.”
Apologize for Misleading Documentary – NMC to Manasseh
It will be recalled that in 2019, the National Media Commission (NMC) ordered Manasseh Azure Awuni to apologize to government for his “Militia in the Heart of the Nation”. The NMC described the documentary as “misleading and a misrepresentation.”
According to the NMC, although the documentary was in the public interest, the author, Manasseh Azure Awuni breached the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) code of ethics.
“In the end, the Commission found out that the attempt to expose the fact that the group operated from the Castle was in the public interest. However, in the attempt, the investigation had not been consistent in following the ethical standards defined by the Ghana Journalists Association code of ethics, particularly guideline 23, which states that “a journalist ensures that photographs and multimedia content adequately reflect an event and do not highlight an incidence out of context’’.
The 22-minute documentary sought to portray that the group, D-Eye, had been uncovered training and operating at the Christianborg Castle at Osu in Accra, which is a “security zone” with the complicity of the New Patriotic Party (NPP)-led government.
The government filed a petition against Joy News’ “militia documentary” at the National Media Commission (NMC), and asked for an order for a retraction and an apology.
This was because the government said the contents of the said documentary was “misleading.”
Manasseh Azure Awuni’s departure from Multimedia Joy News is allegedly linked to the controversy over the documentary.
The NMC after sitting on the matter made its ruling public in a statement issued on Wednesday, July 24, 2019 and signed by the Chairperson of the NMC, Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh.
According to the NMC’s ruling, whereas it finds the presence of the group in the Castle problematic and unacceptable, it did not manifest any violent conduct to be described as a militia or vigilante group.
It added that the inclusion of shots from the Ayawaso West Wuogon violence and attack on the Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator were at variance with the activities of the D-Eye Group as captured at the Castle.
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