Senior Lecturer at the Accra Technical University, Dr. Daniel Osabutey, has advised journalists to desist from headlines that seem to conclude on the murder incident at the Konongo Odumase Secondary High School (KOSS).
He observes that these journalistic pieces which seem to imply that the suspects have already been declared guilty does not help the police in its investigation.
In an interview with Samuel Eshun on e.TV Ghana’s ‘Fact Sheet’ show, he said: “It appears people are being too emotional in the reportage. This is because I don’t think that this is the time for us to begin to misrepresent facts. Immediately we begin to do this we make the work of the Police very difficult because they have started investigating the matter. So if you begin to then preempt or have some captions all in the name of selling your paper, I don’t think it is going to help unravel the mystery behind this unfortunate incident.”
He noted for example that juveniles who commit crimes must still be protected. Hence, it is inappropriate to reveal the identities of culprits who are juveniles in a news item. “There are rules and regulations that are supposed to guide and guard these juveniles. “Their names shouldn’t have been published. They have to be protected. You don’t have to be label the culprit in this case as a killer. The act is condemnable but the one who did it should be protected,” he added.
The police, on November 6 arrested five students of the Konongo Odumase Secondary High School (KOSS) for allegedly stabbing a first-year colleague to death.
The police later arraigned the five suspects on Monday, November 8th, 2021.
Subsequently, the Konongo District Court remanded the five students arrested for their roles in the death of the student into police custody.
The five are expected to return to court on November 15 on a provisional charge of murder and abetment of crime.
The 17-year-old deceased student, identified as Sam-una Larrham was a first-year gold track student.
