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Ghana was only last week visited by the nasty and smelly organized beating of journalists performing their legitimate function, covering a Brong Ahafo @50 event in the regional capital, Sunyani. Those who carried out the infraction were identified as activists, sympathizers and members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC). The worrying reminder of the dark days of �revolutionary disorder� of the PNDC junta, which the breach invoked, was particularly disturbing to older Ghanaians. Since the incident unfolded, the Brong Ahafo Regional branch of the Ghana Journalists� Association (GJA) has justifiably taken a decision to boycott activities organized by the regional coordinating council and the NDC. The national body, the GJA, perhaps under pressure, has in a belated and lame action issued the standard statement, condemning the incident. The beating of journalists is a de ja vu and probably won�t be the last time in this country, especially if cherishers of democracy do not gird their loins to contain the infraction head-on. The enemies of press freedom, cowards and intolerant as they are, intellectually weak, with no conviction in what they do and believe in, are only ready to settle scores through such uncivilized paths, acting as though being remotely controlled. They find nothing wrong with destroying our hard-earned freedom of expression and will go to all lengths at achieving this. An anonymous American underscored the importance of press freedom when he noted that between government and the press, he would go with the latter, given the critical role played by the fourth estate of the realm in a civilized society. A regime of freedom of expression or of the press is a critical segment of our Constitution and should be treated as such by all and sundry. It is the prevalence of this attribute of democracy which allows all others, both within government and outside it, to express varying opinions and preferences. As commonplace as it is, we would prefer not to pontificate over this subject. We may be wrong in our positions and others right but the fact remains that we have the right to what we stand for. The legendary Chinese leader, Mao Tse Tsung, once remarked that thousands of ideas should be allowed to blossom and cross fertilise because such a synthesis is good for the practice of the fourth estate of the realm. The media, electronic and print, are only conduits of the freedom of expression in the society and any attempt at visiting beastly conduct on their practitioners is an affront to democracy. With 100s of both FM stations and newspapers in the country, varying opinions, good, bad and even very bad, are to be expected. Elsewhere in the world as noted by the Brong Ahafo regional chairman of the NDC, a lawyer, media persons face other risks of their profession but beating might not necessarily be one of these. It is irrational to consider the beating of lawyers, killing of policemen and jailing of politicians as normal occurrences in those vocations. Only a couple of days ago, some persons parading themselves as Christians threatened to assault journalists covering a court hearing of a case in Accra. Not too long ago, some policemen vented their anger on journalists covering their case when they made their last appearance for robbing a businessman of a large sum of money. Recently, a minister seized cassettes from journalists to stop an unsavoury news item from getting to the public. These are painful drawbacks to our democratic growth and must be resisted by all means as a civic responsibility. News should flow, ideas cross-fertilized and the media allowed to keep watch over the conduct of those wielding political power. Failure to move along the foregone is a solid proof that we are after all not ready to govern ourselves along the lines of democratic civility. We call on all Ghanaians, human rights activists and cherishers of democracy to condemn the attack on journalists. The GJA, whose members were ignominiously assaulted for no wrong done, should ask those who they gleefully write about and praise to treat them with respect. What happened in Brong Ahafo is a test case for the association. We are interested in determining whether they have balls and ready to fight the return of bestiality. We shall return.