Court is not media playground – Serwaa Amihere to bloggers

Media personality and lawyer, Joyce Serwaa Amihere, has urged bloggers to respect the professional boundaries of the courtroom, saying legal practice should not be treated as a media spectacle.

Ms Amihere made the remarks during an interview on Angel FM on Thursday after questions were raised about her discomfort with bloggers recording her arrival at court.

Addressing the issue, she said the assumption that her work in television automatically makes her comfortable with cameras in all settings is misplaced.

According to her, media work and legal practice demand very different standards of conduct.

“I don’t have any beef with them. The majority of them are actually my friends,” she said. “But I have seen a lot of comments from people saying I do TV so the camera shouldn’t be strange to me. They are two different jobs.”

She explained that while visibility is part of television, the legal profession requires restraint, discretion, and focus.

“Law is not about camera, and I’m not the only lawyer,” Ms Amihere stated. “I’m actually a pupil. I’m going through pupillage and I want to bring some high level of professionalism to what I’m doing.”

Joyce Serwaa Amihere was called to the Ghana Bar just two months ago and is currently undergoing pupillage at a law firm.

She described herself as a young lawyer still learning the ropes and said constant filming creates unnecessary attention.

“I’m a baby lawyer. I’ve just begun and they have cameras on me all the time,” she said.

While she noted that she does not object to being filmed in informal settings, she drew a clear line when it comes to court proceedings.

“If you see me and I’m coming here, you can video if you like, take shots of my shoe because that’s what they do sometimes,” she remarked. “But when I’m going to court, it’s a different business altogether and I like to keep my law profession just as it is.”

She stressed that the courtroom should not be reduced to content creation.

“It is not a media playground,” she added.

Ms Amihere also revealed that her employers are uncomfortable with the attention, saying it conflicts with the values of her firm.

“My bosses don’t like that,” she explained. “I work in a firm and they don’t like the noise. They want our work to speak for itself.”

Beyond her legal career, Joyce Serwaa Amihere is a media personality and businesswoman and runs a foundation that supports underprivileged women.

She maintained that separating her public media image from her professional legal life is necessary to uphold standards within the legal profession.