Private legal practitioner and host of the current affairs programme Newsfile, Samson Lardy Anyenini, has renewed calls for the repeal of Section 208 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), arguing that the provision has increasingly become a tool for suppressing free expression and dissent in Ghana.
In a legal commentary titled “The Abronye Charge Sheet – misuse in plain sight,” Mr Anyenini described the law criminalising the publication of false news likely to cause fear and alarm as a “colonial-era relic” that should have been abolished alongside criminal and seditious libel laws in 2001.
According to him, the continued existence of Section 208 undermines constitutional protections for free speech guaranteed under Article 21 of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution and weakens the country’s democratic credentials.
Mr Anyenini argued that the provision has increasingly been used to arrest, detain and prosecute journalists, activists and political commentators.
He disclosed that he had identified at least 16 alleged instances of misuse of Section 208 within the last 18 months alone, compared with roughly a dozen cases recorded during the eight years preceding January 2025.
Despite years of legal education and public discussion aimed at guiding law enforcement agencies on the proper interpretation of the law, he said abuses of the provision have persisted.
“The culture of abuse has proven resistant to correction. Education is no longer viable; repeal is the only remedy,” he argued.
Referring to the amended charge sheet in the criminal case involving Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye, Mr Anyenini contended that the case highlighted what he described as the misuse of Section 208.
He argued that although the comments attributed to Abronye may have been insulting or defamatory, they did not meet the legal threshold of “false news likely to cause fear and alarm” required under the provision.
According to him, such disputes should ordinarily be addressed through civil defamation proceedings rather than criminal prosecution.
Mr Anyenini acknowledged growing concerns about misinformation, reckless political commentary and abusive speech on social media, but maintained that broadly framed criminal speech laws are not the appropriate response.
He insisted that civil legal remedies remain the proper mechanism for addressing reputational harm and false statements.
The legal practitioner also criticised what he described as the silence of political leaders and successive governments regarding repeated reliance on Section 208, arguing that such silence has effectively emboldened law enforcement agencies to continue invoking the law against critics and dissenting voices.
He referenced the proposed Misinformation, Disinformation, Hate Speech and Publication of Other Information Bill, 2025, which seeks to repeal Section 208 and amend Section 76 of the Electronic Communications Act, 2008 (Act 775).
Mr Anyenini described the proposed repeal as a positive step but cautioned Parliament against replacing the existing law with similarly vague or overly broad restrictions on speech.
According to him, any future regulation of misinformation and harmful online content must be narrowly tailored, proportionate and fully consistent with constitutional protections and international human rights standards.
He argued that Ghana’s legal framework should focus on addressing deliberate and harmful falsehoods without undermining legitimate criticism, journalism and democratic debate.
“The law has been abused beyond repair,” he stated, adding that Ghana must modernise its legal system and move away from colonial-era speech offences.
