{"id":117859,"date":"2026-05-13T09:23:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T09:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=117859"},"modified":"2026-05-13T09:23:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T09:23:39","slug":"no-arrests-for-free-speech-but-unlawful-comments-wont-be-tolerated-gbande","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=117859","title":{"rendered":"No arrests for free speech, but unlawful comments won\u2019t be tolerated \u2013 Gbande"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mustapha Gbande, has defended the Mahama administration against accusations of suppressing free speech, insisting that no Ghanaian has been targeted simply for expressing personal views.<\/p>\n

He argued that freedom of expression remains fully protected under the current government, but warned that comments considered unlawful or capable of threatening national stability should not be mistaken for legitimate opinion-sharing.<\/p>\n

Gbande maintained that individuals whose comments undermine public order or breach existing laws must be prepared to face legal action. He also stressed that the laws governing such matters were not introduced by the current administration, but have long existed within Ghana\u2019s legal framework.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Channel One TV on Tuesday, May 12, Gbande said, \u201cNobody has been arrested for speaking his mind. If you go and say foolish things, foolish things are not to be tolerated. It\u2019s different from speaking your mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that statements capable of destabilising the country could not be ignored, insisting that \u201cyou have to face the law\u201d if such conduct breaches national laws.<\/p>\n

The NDC Deputy General Secretary further praised what he described as an improved democratic environment under President John Dramani Mahama, arguing that citizens now feel freer to criticise authority and openly express opposing views without intimidation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mustapha Gbande, has defended the Mahama administration against accusations of suppressing free speech, insisting that no Ghanaian has been targeted simply for expressing personal views.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7151,17829,111,1883,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-speech","category-gbande","category-mahama","category-national","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}