To comment or not to comment on judgments of the courts of law

Abstract

The Tsatsu Tsikata case has come to an end. Or has it? In the last couple of weeks, the media, one of the veritable bulwarks of our infant democracy, has literally pursued and harassed members of the legal community for comments on the case. In many instances, the media was genuinely seeking for a down-to-earth explanation of the events reported to have happened in the High Court (Fast track Division) on the 18th of June, 2008, when the judgment in the case was delivered, and what the options for Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata were. They were also seeking to assist the public to understand the implications for the administration of Justice and for Mr. Tsikata, given that one aspect of the case was then pending before the Supreme Court for determination when judgment was delivered in the high Court. Things got so bad that some radio and television stations were literally begging for clarification on some of the issues, for the public. In this short article, I express concern about the silence of the legal community and the Ghanaian public after what appears to be a travesty of justice, and suggest reasons for that sentence. I end the piece by noting some reasons why the administration of justice must constantly be under the watchful eye of the citizenry and point to ways of doing this.