Minister of State for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu has firmly established President John Dramani Mahama's commitment to upholding freedom of speech and the democratic tenets of the country.

Delivering a speech at the launch of the 30th GJA Media Awards, Kwakye Ofosu delineated what he believes is a clear distinction between free speech and hate speech as demonstrated under the current administration.

According to him, the Mahama government isn't against people exercising their freedom of speech, however, such freedom shouldn't escalate into hate speech.

“A clear distinction must be struck between free speech and criminal conduct. Under no circumstances will the government of President John Dramani Mahama curb free speech.”

He narrated that “sometime last year, we began to notice the activities of individuals who were using hate speech to foment trouble in areas of conflict. These are people who took to social media to run commentary that had the potential to deepen conflicts that were raging in certain parts of the country, so law enforcement used technology available to them to clamp down on such activities”.

Felix Kwakye Ofosu added: “Africa is littered with examples of how speech like that led to serious genocide and conflict. And it will be derelict on the part of law enforcement to sit and not do anything about people who abuse the space of social media to engage in these sorts of activities.