American actor, Eric Marlon Bishop, better known by his stage name Jamie Foxx has been accused of slapping a woman with his pen*s in 2002 according to a report by TMZ.
But the big question is; Is it possible for a man to slap a woman with his pen*s? That’s weird if really it is true that Jamie Foxx slapped the woman with his pen*s.
On Thursday a jury found 80-year old American actor and comedian Bill Cosby guilty of all three counts of aggravated assault levelled against him for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home in a Philadelphia suburb in 2004. He faces up to ten years in jail for each individual count and it … Read more
Kelly faces fresh allegations of sexual misconduct in a new BBC documentary — the latest in a decades-long string of sex abuse claims against the R&B singer. The documentary, “R Kelly: Sex, Girls and Videotapes,” released on Wednesday, features several people who accuse Kelly of predatory behaviour. Kelly’s musical career has been relatively unscathed by previous accusations, but the documentary raises the possibility he may finally face a Me Too reckoning.
Ex-girlfriend Kitti Jones says in the film that the singer forced her and other women to have sex with him in a “sex dungeon.” She also said Kelly, whose real name is Robert Kelly, groomed an underage girl to be his sex “pet.” “I was introduced to one of the girls [in the ‘dungeon’] that he told me he ‘trained’ since she was 14, those were his words,” said Jones, according to The Guardian. “I saw that she was dressed like me, that she was saying the things I’d say and her mannerisms were like mine. That’s when it clicked in my head that he had been grooming me to become one of his pets. He calls them his pets.”
Social Media is buzzing with conversations that Ghanaian musician-Ara B who took to Facebook last night to insult Shatta Wale’s wife-Shatta Michy has been arrested, for defaming or insulting Michy and her husband-Wale. Though I do not totally believe this is the case, because no one should ever be arrested by the police in Ghana … Read more
Law is a complex discipline and even after studying it for over 7 years to a Masters degree level, I still get lost in its complexities, sometimes.
Yesterday, it emerged that the state of Ghana (the Attorney General) had issued ‘Nolle Prosequi’ in the Kwesi Kyei Darkwah’s rape case—a development which was met with jubilation from KKD’s camp and also attracted a callous message from KKD’s 20 year old daughter-Ohemaa.
On social media, the debate continues unabated in a room of confusion, caused by the various legal complexities.
It’s difficult to keep up with the law—and this difficulty is mostly made worse by the regular use of Latin words and phrase in the legal field. In law schools, those Latin phrases are the most hated—and as such I can understand the confusing they bring to ordinary people.
Let’s look at what the Attorney General wrote in the issuance of KKD’s ‘Nolle Prosequi’ which for now has made KKD a free man…
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The victim in this case Ewureffe is still very unwilling to testify in court. The victim states that she is highly traumatized by the events of the day of the incident and its aftermath and so is not in the right frame of mind to appear before the court.
Thus the Attorney General believes that it is not in the best interest of the victim and the prosecution to present her before the court at this point in time.
I wouldn’t want to call myself an expert in discrimination when it comes to the law or in general discussion—but I have written a lot about what amounts to discrimination (both legally and socially) to the extent that I can sense unfounded discrimination arguments miles away.
For some weeks now, Ghanaian rapper-Eazzy has taken on a campaign, arguing for the organisers of the annual Ghana Music Awards (now Vodafone Ghana Music Awards) to create a category called ‘Best Female Rapper’.
Everyone has the right to call for an inclusion of ‘whatever’ in life and I do not have a problem with this—however, I have a problem with Eazzy’s direction of argument and the unfounded grounds on which she seems to erect her campaign.
I listened to Eazzy mount her arguments on radio a few days ago —and today, she is in the news again with her campaign; arguing that, the absence of ‘Best Female Rapper’ in the VGMAs amounts to some sort of pure gender discrimination.
Perhaps, it’s Eazzy’s understanding of what amounts to discrimination which is causing the confusion in her campaign. I find it extremely difficult to locate any element of ‘pure’ discrimination in the non-existent of such a category—for the simple fact that, there is nothing like ‘Best Male Rapper’ in the VGMAs too.
Of course gender is a protected characteristic under discrimination but for there to be any sort of discrimination, there must be a favourable treatment of one gender over the other—directly or indirectly. If there was a category called ‘Best Male Rapper’ and there was nothing like ‘Best Female Rapper’, then Eazzy would have a sound argument in ‘pure’ discrimination.
All around the world, people are increasingly taking pride in justice and the rule of law—to the extent that, some are ready to die for the enjoyment of their legal rights; think Charlie Hebdo.
However, when it comes to the poor West African country-Ghana, people seem to regard the selling of their rights and dignity a far better option than to join the global fight against the diminishing important of the rule of law in the minds of certain ‘intentional’ law breakers—mostly, those with connections and money to pay off their victims.
Few months ago, an Ashanti Regional Editor of Daily Graphic- Daniel Kenu was assaulted by Baffour Gyan, the senior brother of the rich Ghanaian footballer-Asamoah Gyan and after taking the case to court—the journalist later wrote to the court to withdraw the case, citing some ridiculous reasons. The plausible reason for the case withdrawal was that, the Gyan brothers had paid the journalists off—intentionally breaking the law and easily paying off their victim.
Just yesterday, it emerged that the victim in the KKD alleged rape case-Miss Ewuraffe Orleans Thompson had written to the necessary authorities to withdraw her allegations against Kwesi Kyei Darkwah who was being held in custody over rape charges, awaiting trial. Once again, she cited some non-convincing reasons.
The shocking and sudden efforts to withdraw the case was immediately followed by an unanticipated letter of apology from KKD who had from day one denied ever doing anything wrong to the girl—once again, speculations are wild that money has been paid to the victim’s family.
In the above two famous cases, let me mention that it’s within the rights of the victims to accept whatever compensation they are offered by those who’ve wronged them but for the rule of law to take its deserving stand in our Ghanaian society, the Court looks like a better adjudicator of such matters compared to the back door Kangaroo courts we are seeing.
The precedents springing from such offences and the way they are being settled with money by those affluent Ghanaians are these; in Ghana, you are above the law provided you have some cash—and people do not value their dignities in Ghana so you can violate them as long as you have the means to pay them off when reported.
Unknown to several people including celebrities, the word ‘journalist’ in its simple form refers to a person who writes news stories or articles for a newspaper, a blog, website or magazine or broadcasts them on radio or television.
Journalism is the act of disseminating news to the public. Journalism is more of a practice, not an academic discipline. This is why Julian Assange, Christopher Hitchens, Komla Dumor and several others are counted as journalists (great ones for that matter) without having attended any major school of journalism…
I am making the above statement to arrive at the point that, the emergence of new media and the shift from the traditional notion of information dissemination has created a long journalistic chain with several people falling into the pot of journalism—just by virtue of what they do from their bedrooms.
As usual, the above has led to gross diminishing of professionalism and expected standards but these does not take away the simple fact that, we now have different forms of journalists with great following and influence.
The influx of new media platforms like blogs have taken away great deal of strength from the traditional news outlets like newspapers and magazines with many struggling to maintain readership…
No wonder the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently ruled in the Cox case that bloggers are entitled to the same protections as journalists. In the court’s reasoning, the court said; “The protections of the First Amendment do not turn on whether the defendant was a trained journalist, formally affiliated with traditional news entities, engaged in conflict-of-interest disclosure, went beyond just assembling others’ writings, or tried to get both sides of a story. As the Supreme Court has accurately warned, a First Amendment distinction between the institutional press and other speakers is unworkable….”
All the above show that, a new media has emerged with great influence and legal protection, as well as a burden of responsibility—-but it seems our African Celebrities (especially Ghanaian Celebrities) do not know how to deal with this new media.
For many years, we’ve smoked ourselves in the US 1950’s doctrine of Payola without necessary looking at the cross-sectional effects—especially the benefits of paying for your music to be hugely played on radio stations.
Ghanaian songs are not going anywhere and this is partly due to the fact that, our musicians have bought into this concept of; ‘I will not pay for my music to be played or promoted’, wrongly terming every payment for radio broadcast as POYOLA, a contraction of “pay” and Victrola record players.
Now let me emphatically mention that, paying a DJ to play your song on radio is not PAYOLA and there is nothing wrong with it—be it legal or moral.
According to the U.S. law, 47 U.S.C. § 317 which gives grounds to PAYOLA, the illegal act of PAYOLA takes place when a radio station plays a specific song in exchange for money, service or other valuable consideration directly or indirectly and fails to disclose on air as being sponsored airtime—rather, presents the song as being part of the normal day’s broadcast.
All around the world, musicians and record companies pay HUGELY for their songs to be played/promoted on radio stations, online and TV. There is nothing wrong with such payments; the only thing wrong is when those broadcasting the songs fail to state that their actions are sponsored.
In fact, I consider Payola as an intelligent crime against radio listeners and not even the musicians so why are the musicians in Ghana rather the ones heavily fighting it?
Have we sat down to think of this? What is the difference between paying for your music video to be shown on a TV station and paying for your music to be played on radio?
If there are equally good or crap songs out there and a DJ has a limited time on his hands, I see nothing wrong if a musician buys 4 minutes of the DJ’s airtime to make sure his song is played—-and remember the catch, as long as the DJ makes it clear to the listeners that this is a promo or does not present the song as being part of the normal day’s broadcast, that is not illegal and it is not called Payola.
After nearly a decade of dealing with African Celebrities, I’ve come to realize that despite the strict legal requirements that must be satisfied to establish defamation (both libel and slander), our African Celebrities just throw into the air ‘Defamation’ when they’ve not been defamed and have no case—legally.
From my experience, it is obvious that our Celebrities think publications which are not favourable to them, expose them, undermine their status or attack their actions/personality fit the box of defamation, even if the writer is merely expression an opinion or honestly believed his publication to be true.
In the ordinary world, it’s easy to establish defamation compared to when the subject concerned is a celebrity (public figure). Therefore, what may be defamation when slapped on the face of the ordinary man next door may not be defamation when said about a celebrity…
What is defamation at all?
According to the English case of Sim v Stretch, defamation is a false statement of fact that exposes a person to hatred, ridicule, contempt or which tends to lower him in the esteem of right thinking persons of society.
Based on the above, statements that are merely offensive, such as, Nadia Buari smells badly will not be sufficient to be termed as defamatory.
When it comes to the law, mistake as to the law has never been an excuse. The burden therefore lies on individuals seeking to operate under the law to find out what the law actually states at any point in time. The principle of ‘equality before the law’ also demands that, all persons should be … Read more
Few months ago, I published an article titled ‘What You Say On Twitter Can Constitute Defamation’ which looked at various individuals who have had to pay huge compensations through their noses for certain short tweets. I followed that article with another piece ‘What You Say On Twitter Can Now Fetch You A Criminal Liability-A Prison … Read more
Few weeks ago, I published an article titled ‘What You Say On Twitter Can Constitute Defamation’ which looked at various individuals who have had to pay huge compensations through their noses for certain short tweets. In that article, I mentioned that apart from being slammed with civil suits, it is increasing becoming popular for certain … Read more
For some years now, the ordinary Ghanaian music lover has incessantly been robbed by cunning event organizers, and until the issue of false advertisement is tackled, this trend will gain undeserving roots in our fast growing Entertainment industry.
How many times have you bought a ticket to a Ghanaian concert and only to be disappointed by the fact that, some of the artistes (probably the main persons why you bought the ticket) will not show up or were never even hired to show up?
Some of these advertisement gimmicks can easily be spotted and avoided. For instance, if a concert of 3 hours says it has 15 artistes on the bill, then I will certainly scratch my head before eventually purchasing a ticket. It is highly probably in this case that my favourite artiste (reason for my ticket purchase) will not show up.
On the other hand, it becomes very difficult to spot false concert advertisements when there are less than 5 artistes on the bill.
There are several instances where some event organizers have used photos and names of artistes they have not even contacted their managements for concert advertisements with the sole intention of benefiting to the detriment of innocent Ghanaian music lovers-scamming. On the day of such concerts, the innocent patrons get caught up with disappointments whiles the event organizers laugh out loud with fat pockets full of money.
For many years now, it has been uncertain whether a tweet could constitute libel. The short nature of tweets and the level of non-seriousness attached to tweets, which are classified as everyday rants and ramblings of ordinary people suggest that tweets should not be held as facts, hence, cannot be defamatory.
The uncertainty in this sphere of social media and then law has been settled, so better watch what you say on twitter because a tweet can be defamatory.
Case laws from jurisdictions such as England & Wales, New Zealand and U.S.A seem to have settled the question whether a tweet can constitute libel in the affirmative.
A recent libel case brought by Chris Cairns who played cricket for England and New Zealand has won him £90,000 in libel damages over a tweet of 24 words sent by Lalit Modi.
Chris sued Lalit Modi, chairman and commissioner of the Indian Premier League over a tweet the latter sent, stating that, the former “had been sacked from an Indian cricket league team because of match fixing”, contrary to Cairns claim of knee injury.
Chris Cairns successfully argued in court that, the above tweet from Lalit Modi was libellous since it completely destroyed him within the cricket community.
