US court awards Ghanaian journalist $18m in suit against politician, podcaster
PICTURE: Anas Aremeyaw Anas/Aurora Humanitarian Initiative
Compiled from MyJoyOnline and other sources
Award-winning investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas describes himself as ‘[a] modern day crime fighter who exposes corruption and helps police arrest some of the worst criminals in Africa’. He also quips that he is ‘the most notorious journalist in Ghana’.
But on 18 March 2025, Anas, known for his anonymity, saw his opprobrium break international news when the Superior Court of New Jersey awarded him $18-million in damages in a lawsuit against Ghanaian former MP Kennedy Agyapong and United States-based Ghanaian social media commentator and broadcaster, Frederick Asamoah.
This was an entirely different outcome to that in March 2023, when the High Court at Accra dismissed a GH¢25 million (about $1 612 903,22) defamation suit brought by Anas in Ghana against Agyapon.
The judge, Justice Eric Baah, said Anas ‘failed to prove that Ken Agyapong defamed him by airing [his] documentary, Who Watches the Watchman‘, and, rather, that ‘the [Agyapong] documentary exposed shady deals … Anas and his associates were involved in’.
The cases in the US and Ghana concerned different allegations of defamation brought by Anas against the politician.
MyJoyOnline reported this week that ‘the judgment [in the US came] after a lengthy legal battle stemming from alleged defamatory statements made by the defendants during a 2021 interview broadcast on social media’.
‘The lawsuit, filed on 17 May 2022, in the Essex County Superior Court [in Salem, Massachusetts], accused … Agyapong and … Asamoah of making false and damaging statements about Anas during an episode of [The Daddy Fred Show], a popular online programme targeting Ghanaian audiences in the US.
‘The interview, which was streamed live on Facebook and other platforms, garnered over 29 000 views and contained several defamatory claims against Anas [who is] known for exposing corruption and human rights abuses.’
Anas argued that the defendants’ statements ‘were part of a calculated effort to tarnish his reputation and discredit his work’.
‘The defamatory remarks included allegations that Anas was a criminal, a thief and responsible for the murder of [Ahmed Hussein-Suale Divela], an undercover journalist who worked with Anas on [his] explosive documentary, Number 12.’
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that ‘two men on a motorcycle shot and killed … Divela on 16 January 2019, while he was driving in the Madina neighborhood of … Accra’.
‘Divela worked on several projects with [Anas’s investigative organisation] Tiger Eye P.I., including a June 2018 documentary, “Number 12” [which was] later re-released by the BBC under the name Betraying the Game.
‘He was assisting government prosecutors [in Ghana] with an investigation into alleged corruption featured in that documentary,’ said Sammy Darko, a lawyer for Tiger Eye at the time.
‘That investigation later resulted in the fraud trial of Kwesi Nyantakyi, a former president of the Ghana Football Association, according to reports.’
Number 12: When Greed and Corruption Become the Norm laid bare issues of corruption in the administration of West African football and ultimately led to the resignation of top officials and the dissolution of Ghana’s Football Association. But it was not universally praised for its journalism.
March 2023’s Accra judgment saw Anas accused of failing to practise investigative journalism and rather ‘investigative terrorism’. Online newspaper Modern Ghana reported the High Court found Agyapong had therefore been justified in calling Anas ‘a blackmailer, corrupt, an extortionist and evil’ in his documentary.
MyJoyOnline quotes Anas after the Essex County Superior Court verdict, which he ‘described … as a “resounding affirmation that falsehood and character assassination have no place in our society” and a crucial step in Ghana’s democratic journey’.
- Also read ‘Anas vs Ken Agyapong: Breakdown of how journalist dragged former MP through courts in two countries’ in Ghanaweb.com
- Anas’s website can be found here
- Anas has been a speaker at the African Investigative Journalism Conference (AIJC), an initiative of the Wits Centre for Journalism. Watch an excerpt from his appearance at the conference in 2023, here
