Anas Aremeyaw Anas at the 87th AIPS Congress: “There is no story worth the life of a journalist”

RABAT, May 14, 2025 – Six years after his friend and colleague was shot and killed in Accra, Ghana, for playing a huge role in exposing the deep-rooted bribery in African football, Ghanaian investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas has insisted that the fight against corruption continues.

Anas, who received the Investigative Reporting prize at the maiden AIPS Sport Media Awards ceremony in January 2019, headlined a forum on investigative journalism, moderated by AIPS President Gianni Merlo, at the 87th AIPS Congress in Rabat, Morocco, on Wednesday. 

Back in 2018, his two-year long undercover investigation “Betraying the Game” shook the world of football after almost one hundred football officials across West Africa and Kenya were caught on camera accepting cash in a sting operation. The investigative piece not only attracted 66 lawsuits but also that led to the death of his friend and colleague, Ahmed Hussein-Suale in January 2019. 

AIPS President Gianni Merlo and Ghanaian investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas on stage at the 87th AIPS Congress (Photo by Carlo Pozzoni/AIPS Media)

“BETRAYING THE GAME” Anas said he has never liked football, he just looks for crime. But finding out that poor officiating led to the Accra Sports Stadium stampede which resulted in the death of 120 people made him to dig deep into the most popular sport in Ghana.

“It was a search to find crime, and specifically crime that affects humanity, innocent citizens who had gone to just watch football. On the African continent, in the face of the myriads of problems that we have regarding corruption in many sectors of the economy, football is the last resort for the poor and average person to have recreation. So if corruption sinks so low, so that it seeps into the pores of sports or better so football, then it means the world is going down and down regarding the fight against crime. It is a place where we all go and expect to have fair play, but when you can buy yellow cards, when you can buy red cards, when you can fix a match, when you can bet, you can do anything, it takes away the spirit of the game,” Anas recalled. 

“Unfortunately, a colleague of mine, Ahmed Hussein-Suale, who I worked tirelessly with on this story, was shot twice in the neck and thrice in his heart, and that led to his tragic death. Do we relent because of this? No, it’s a fight. It’s a forward-ever fight, whatever happens, we stand and we look at fairness in sports, fairness in football.”

Anas, whose face is hidden behind a curtain of pearls, has won multiple international awards for his reporting and remains dedicated to exposing corruption, while risking his life in his quest for the truth. Six years after “Betraying the Game”, he believes the future looks promising.

“Why? Because a lot more African journalists are taking keen interest in asking or following the money. So if FIFA has given money to an association to build stadiums, we are more interested in finding out the whos and the whys. Whether those stadiums have been built or not.”

But there are still challenges. Anas explained that it is much more expensive to investigate football-related issues, and he also highlighted the danger of an unchecked passion for the sport. “It is positive to have people being passionate about football or being passionate about sports. However, the danger of this passion is when the journalist has investigated something that goes to the core of the fan base. They are angry with you. They declare your persona non grata, and that’s where the dangers have increased.”

NEW MEDIA In spite of the financial difficulties that affect investigative journalism, Anas pointed out that new media presents a positive: “New media has made it very possible to do certain things within the scope of your room and be able to get in touch with places that are geographically impossible to go to. New media has created avenues to get restricted files… So in as much as things keep tightening, we always have to find a way. It’s never going to be rosy. The dangers are still there, but we will not relent. We’ll push forward.”

He, however, acknowledged the problem of fake news. “Fake news would continue to be a phenomenon that affects us, and that will not be restricted to only this generation, but the generations to come. Today, with AI, you can do anything. Fake news is a real threat, but fortunately, we are able to fact check, and that’s why the work we do is important. The best way of combating fake news is to be a real journalist, to be honest and to be able to play fair in our reportage, to do all the cross checkings that we are able to do. When we do all this, there will be no room for fake news.”

A CALLING For Anas, journalism is a calling, so no matter how difficult the journey becomes, he will “still keep the fire burning”. 

“It’s difficult for even your family when you do this job, and I can tell you that there’s been a lot of difficulty in the last few years of this journalism. You can’t sleep with your two eyes closed. You always have one eye open. You cannot live in a place for a long time. You always have to keep changing their schools, moving them here and there. And we haven’t forgotten lawsuits. For example, in “Betraying the Game” I had about 66 lawsuits. 66! These people sue you knowing very well that you do not have the capacity to find the income to engage lawyers. Guess what? I never lost any of them (the lawsuits). I won because my film or my investigation was based on hard core evidence, and when you base your work on hardcore evidence, the results will stand the test of time.”

He added: “Six years now, here I am, still wearing my mask. Six years now, we have not found the killers of Ahmed Hussein-Suale. That is the reality. Because we have to understand that you are not fighting a vacuum. You are fighting organized crime. As we prepare as journalists every single day in our quest for the truth, there are some other people who also prepare in the quest to disrupt the truth. People make heavy financial gains from telling lies, from bribing and other things. So this is a world of black and white. Do we have any choice? Do you go to black or you go to white? I have chosen to belong to the white despite the difficulties that come along with it. It is never going to be easy.”

AIPS President Gianni Merlo presents a trophy to Ghanaian investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas (Photo by Carlo Pozzoni/AIPS Media)

KNOCK ON THE CORRUPTION DOOR Anas explained the nature of investigative journalism: “For us investigative journalists, perhaps it’s not just about coverage, but going behind the scenes and finding out what happened before or what will happen after that coverage. We are more critical. We always want to ask questions. One of the things that is able to fool us is people’s public image. Sometimes we look at people’s image and think that they are not corrupt. No, that’s not it. Always knock on that corruption door. In investigative journalism, that is how we probe, and that is why you are a danger to those who benefit, because they know that you will go till your last breath. 

“Apart from being a journalist, I’m also a lawyer. I was called to the bar 13 years ago. So when I go undercover, I pick evidence that I can put before the court of law to ensure that the bad guy is jailed. So where does journalism stop? It is up to you. When I say a crime has been committed, I’m showing you the hardcore evidence of how the crime was committed. I am also going to the court of law to testify, ensuring that the bad people go to jail.”

SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN SPORTS In response to a question about tackling sexual harassment in sports, Anas said: “It’s an area that we are very interested in and have been looking at. Yes, we’ve seen a lot of sexual harassment within that sphere. But here’s the situation: it takes a lot of embedding to be able to find this detail, because we are interested in not just allegations, but finding the hard core evidence to support those allegations. And usually when we hear someone’s story, we send a team member to be around the team to see what that official continues to do. We’ve gotten reports from many parts of Africa and the world where young people who are engaged in sports are being sexually harassed with the promise of being given better positions or being given lead roles in their teams, and it’s something that we are keen on, and we hope that, if we have the finances, we’ll be able to crack one on the African continent.” 

NO STORY IS WORTH A LIFE Anas then stressed the need for investigative journalists to always be vigilant. “There is no story worth the life of the journalist. We all, in whatever we do, must live to be able to tell the next story tomorrow. So we have to remain vigilant. We have to always cross check and check again, because today, the weapon is to get the wrong information to you, to use fake news to demonize you, the journalist. So our traditional role of cross checking and checking ought to be alive everyday. Then we also have to watch our backs, and we have to know that not many people are comfortable with what we do, and they will always want to come after our lives. Sometimes what we do allows people to easily come for us. We just have to watch our backs. We have to talk less and do more.”