Larry Alans-Dogbey, Editor of the Herald Newspaper, sentenced to seven days in prison for contempt of court, has filed an appeal arguing the underlying order was unconstitutional, vague, and effectively criminalised legitimate reporting on matters of national interest.
Alans-Dogbey, the second defendant in a civil suit brought by businessman Kevin Okyere and Springfield Exploration and Production Limited, was convicted by the High Court’s General Jurisdiction Division in Accra on June 25, 2026. Justice Isaac Addo found him in contempt of an interlocutory injunction and imposed immediate custodial punishment.
In a Notice of Appeal filed July 1, lawyer Peter Okudzeto lays out 13 grounds challenging both the conviction and the sentence, arguing the case raises serious press freedom concerns under Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.
At the heart of the appeal is the claim that the injunction Alans-Dogbey was accused of breaching was fatally flawed from the outset. The order, issued in June 2025, barred him from publishing statements “intended to undermine and tarnish” Okyere’s reputation. The appeal argues this wording amounts to an unconstitutional prior restraint on free expression, since it barred speech before any court had determined the publications were even defamatory.
Notably, the appeal points out that the trial judge in the injunction ruling had expressly said he was not deciding the underlying defamation case on its merits—yet the injunction effectively did just that.
The appeal also argues the order was too vague to enforce. Citing the judge’s own acknowledgment during the contempt judgment that the wording was “vague,” the defense contends a person cannot be jailed for violating an order even its enforcer admits is unclear.
Central to the appeal is the claim that Alans-Dogbey’s reporting was grounded in legitimate public interest and drawn from official sources, including an Economic and Organised Crime Office petition, a Ministry of Energy letter, and UK court documents.
The appeal notes the publications followed a Supreme Court ruling in a related case, Stena Unicon Offshore Services Ghana Limited v. Springfield Exploration and Production Limited, decided in February 2026.
The appeal further argues that Okyere, as a businessman dealing in state oil and gas assets, is a public figure subject to a higher degree of scrutiny, and that the journalist held a good-faith belief his reporting was constitutionally protected.
One of the more striking grounds concerns how the original court papers were allegedly delivered. The appeal claims a WhatsApp screenshot submitted as proof that Alans-Dogbey had been served was fabricated, arguing he never knew the person named as having sent it and never owned the phone number in question. If substantiated, the appeal argues, this would amount to a fraud on the court.
Alans-Dogbey’s lawyers are asking the Court of Appeal to overturn the conviction and sentence entirely, declare the original injunction void, and if the conviction stands in any form substitute a non-custodial penalty in place of imprisonment.
Kevin Okyere and Springfield Exploration and Production Limited have not yet publicly responded to the appeal’s claims. The matter is now before the Court of Appeal in Accra.
