The Accra High Court yesterday sentenced the Editor of The Herald newspaper, Larry Dogbey,to a  seven days jail term after being found guilty of contempt for breaching an injunction order in a case involving businessman Kevin Okyere and Swiss oil trader Petraco SA.

The judgment delivered by Justice Isaac Addo on Thursday, June 25 was later confirmed by Mr Dogbey and in a Facebook post.

Background

It all started in 2025, June 11, when the High Court issued an interlocutory injunction restraining The Herald from publishing material on Kevin Okyere pending trial.

Kevin Okyere is a Ghanaian oil and gas entrepreneur, best known as the Founder and CEO of Springfield Group, the first indigenous Ghanaian company to drill for oil in deepwater offshore fields.

After about four months later, around October that same year, the Ghanaians Times published the injunction and served via substituted service, including WhatsApp delivery. However despite the court exhausting all channels for the notice to reach The Herald Newspaper, the media house went ahead and published multiple articles alleging fraud and legal troubles involving Mr Okyere, including claims of arrest warrants and bail in Dubai.

According to the court, the editor purposely disregarded the injunction order consequently, served him a sentence to preserve the dignity and authority of the judiciary while the judge stressed that press freedom wasn’t an excuse for disregard for court orders.

It all slammed the media house for damage of reputation linked to choice of words such as “fraud albatross” adopted in the publication of Mr Kyere’s article.

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