Al Jazeera, a major international cable TV network, has indicated that it is not necessary to apologise to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the government of Ghana for the material in the fourth episode of its Gold Mafia series.
In a letter dated April 25, 2023 and signed by Nana Asante Bediatuo, the government demanded that Al Jazeera withdraw and apologize for claims made in some of its programming that Akufo-Addo had contacts with Canadian Alistair Mathias, a self-described money launderer and gold smuggler.
A journalist from Accra’s TV3 wrote to the channel in Doha after the letter was published to ask, among other things, if they had received the letter demanding a retraction and apologies from the government and whether they would answer.
According to an email answer from Al Jazeera that was presented on the May 4 episode of the News Day programme, TV3 stated that the channel had addressed all of Akufo-Addo’s concerns before the aforementioned documentary aired.
“We have responded to the letter from the president of the Republic of Ghana, correcting some parts of its content and clarifying various points.
“Prior to the publication of Gold Mafia, we wrote to the president outlining the claims made by Alistair Mathias. The president’s response appears at the end of the documentary,” their response noted.
Sammy Gyamfi asserts that Akufo-Addo’s letter never made it to Doha.
Sammy Gyamfi, the National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), claimed this weekend that the government was merely showing off in a letter threatening legal action against the international news outlet Al Jazeera, which is based in Doha.
The letter, dated April 25, was in reference to the Gold Mafia documentary series, in which president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is referred to as a friend and former lawyer by one Alistair Mathias, a self-confessed money launderer.
Last week, Sammy Gyamfi called the letter a “comic relief,” but in his most recent jab at the government, he stated the letter to Al Jazeera hadn’t even made it to their team in Ghana, let alone the headquarters in Doha, Qatar.
