As far as I am aware, the fact that Ghana has freedom of press does not mean the press has freedom from feedback. You seem to be offended at the notion that you can be publicly called out for what has been put out using your face and your voice. Have you forgotten that this is called "social media", which is an entirely different ball game from the old unidirectional media? You think this is traditional media where information flows in only one direction?
In any case, regardless of your disingenuous explanations that nobody asked for, the basic facts are that:
1. The US government offered your African country a dangerous and shockingly disrespectful "partnership" that stated among other things, that your FDA has no authority to examine or certify whatever medicines would be brought into your country under this "partnership", and that your country has to submit its citizens' health data including biological samples to the US;
2. Your government (thankfully) rejected this slave contract immediately and told the US government to kick rocks, as it should;
3. DW then commissioned you to do the piece in question examining "the other side" of your government's decision to reject a slave contract, as if where there is a simple life and death issue concerning 33 million Africans, the 'death' side is somehow worth examining - as if DW would platform "the other side" if Ghana told the German government to submit medical data of German citizens to Ghana and stand down its BfArM so that Ghana can import whatever medicine it likes into Germany without any scrutiny;
4. You, as a gormless and guileless African journalist who can barely think beyond next month's payment cycle accepted this assignment (or possibly even pitched it yourself because you know what the commissioning editor wants), and proceeded to do the report, which was essentially a series of stupid and unnecessary questions that basically amounted to "Ghana's government claims that Ghanaians deserve to breathe air, but may the American grim reaper who thinks otherwise actually have a point?"
It is precisely this kind of uncritical, tap-dancing, low-self-esteem buffoonery that The Spearhead exists to tackle in African public spaces. Sometimes the problem with a story is not even what it said - it is that the story exists at all. The US government is openly acting like a pirate around the world, stealing Venezuelan oil, bombing Iranian schoolgirls and bullying Nigeria into signing weighted mineral extraction deals - when has DW ever commissioned you to tell "the other side" of those stories?
DW is a German state media appendage. Germany itself is a US vassal country. You are not so geopolitically unexposed that you don't know this. So there is no way that if asked directly or nudged subtly, you would not have known that this report in question was US foreign policy propaganda slop aimed at an undermining an African audience's trust in the perfectly correct and valid decision taken by their government.
You. Shouldn't. Have. Done. It.
You knew exactly what you were doing when you allowed your face and your voice to be used as yet another black face of racist European/American imperial propaganda. There have been so many before you like this, and you won't be the last. So kindly dead this nonsense about "I admired your work and I support what you do" - no you absolutely do not. We are not on the same side, we do not stand for the same things, and I do not like you.
I have also worked in international media, and once I realised that my voice was being used to push hostile foreign policy intended to exploit me and my people, I got off the bus and I walked! I understood that the interests of 1.5 billion people are infinitely more important than the few euros and dollars I was making from Jeunes Afrique and CNN. Maybe learn to see the world the same way then I will respect you more as a journalist and as a man.
Finally, I stand by everything The Spearhead has published under my leadership and I wholeheartedly invite you to proceed with your legal threat.
David and the entire
@Spearhead_Af team, I’d appreciate it if you made your viewers fully aware of the entire story and what its content says instead of chopping bits and pieces to spin a narrative about anti-Africa. I’ve followed your work, but if this is all it takes, you’d have to come again.
The report you referenced is a two-part series on the health deal. First was Ghana’s rejection of the deal in its entirety. Subsequently, after President Mahama spoke to the deal, the embassy in Accra addressed a news conference where questions were asked, drawing the responses which are part of the news story.
The report, which is reproduced for your audience, even captures President Mahama’s comments.
This was a major news item in the country on September 28, where other major local news outlets reported on the same. Was that anti-Africa propaganda by most leading media houses in Accra?
At no point in this news feature do I state my opinion on the subject. Your attempts to draw inferences and meaning where there was none are but a poor piece of journalism.
I have followed your work and support what you do. I must say I have been left both surprised and disappointed that this is all it takes to put out a story.
I’d ask that this poor piece of work be promptly deleted and an apology rendered for the nuisance you have constituted.
A failure of which will leave me with no choice but to explore all avenues for redress, including legal remedy.