In a dramatic display of state interference, journalists from The Fourth Estate, the investigative unit of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), were forced to abort a scheduled interview with the acting Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, after a top national security operative stepped in to stop the meeting.
The incident occurred on August 11, 2025. The reporters had arranged to meet Dr. Kaba at the GHS headquarters, but upon arrival, they were told the interview venue had been shifted to Ridge Hospital, where the health chief also serves as Director of Medical Affairs.
Midway into preparations for the interview, Dr. Kaba instructed a staffer to contact the National Security Secretariat. Moments later, the journalists received a call from Richard Jakpa, the Secretariat’s Director of Special Operations.
Jakpa’s first question was blunt: “So you went there, what are you working on?” The journalists, citing professional confidentiality, declined to disclose their investigation. Jakpa then issued a direct order: leave immediately.
The reporters, sensing intimidation, left the premises and lodged a formal complaint with the Ministries Police Station in Accra.
The MFWA condemned the move as a flagrant violation of Article 162(4) of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, which prohibits interference in journalists’ work and guarantees the public’s right to information.
“What has national security got to do with journalists doing a harmless exercise such as interviewing a public official?” asked Sulemana Braimah, MFWA’s Executive Director.
This is not the first time Jakpa’s name has surfaced in alleged press intimidation. Only weeks earlier, Prosper Agbenyegah, editor of Current Issues, endured a three-hour interrogation at the National Security Secretariat over a news story—an ordeal linked directly to Jakpa’s operations.
Press freedom advocates say the pattern is alarming. Each incident, they argue, chips away at transparency, emboldens censorship, and sends a chilling message to journalists across Ghana.
