Actions and Reactions to the Evacuation of Guantanamo Bay Detainees to Ghana: A Content Analysis of Daily Graphic Online Reporting

Abstract

The Guantanamo Detention Camp was a facility created by the US government to house enemy-combatant captured from war fronts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Amid controversies surrounding the legality of their detention, the Obama administration pledged to shut down the facility. Since terrorism has become a global menace, efforts to combat it have been approached from a multilateral perspective than unilateral; the US transferred some of the detainees abroad recently to close it. Ghana is one of the countries that accepted two inmates. Through content analysis, this study examines media coverage of their evacuation to Ghana as expressed by sections of the Ghanaian public. Overall, society resented their arrival on fear and panic, insecurity and illegality grounds.