Anas' Investigation Has Nothing To Do With Invading Judge Dery�s Privacy - Law Professor
Judge Dery’s argument that the ace investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas has invaded in his private life as one of the 34 judges who were captured on video allegedly receiving bribes has been considered as an irrelevant argument by a US based Ghanaian law professor, Stephen Kwaku Asare.
According to the Forensic Accounting Lecturer at the University of Florida, USA, what Anas captured on video has nothing to do with Judge Dery’s private life but has everything to do with his public life since it concerns the work he does as a judge.
Speaking on Okay Fm’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Professor Kwaku Asare said Justice Paul Uuter Dery has every right to go to court under the democracy and the constitutional regime but the argument of privacy relating to his public work is not available to him as a state judge.
“…what Anas has reported has nothing to do with Judge Dery’s private life but it has something to do with his public life because it concerns the work he does as a judge and since it relates to his work, he doesn’t have any privacy…Judgeship should be in the public arena and so that privacy argument is not available to him,” he argued.
He maintained that even if the private part thought of Judge Dery is available to him, one of the conditions under which a judge will set aside that thought is when someone is reporting something news worthy.
He stressed if the undercover journalist’s findings are news worthy, it should be reported if they invade the privacy of someone; asserting it is interesting the way Judge Dery has rated illegality the Anas video on judges allegedly receiving bribes to pervert justice.
“When it comes to free press and freedom of speech, the main reason we have free press and freedom of speech is so that we will be informed about how government is being ran; we need information to hold the people who run our government accountable and so anything about the Presidency, Parliament and court which is protected has to come out so that the public will know how their affairs are being ran,” he argued further.
<<Print>>