Other

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

Migrated podcast image for: Outlook

Outlook

Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Outlook: Name, shame and jail: Ghana's undercover journalist

Magazines & Reviews

Anas Aremayaw Anas.jpg

28/07/2020 GMT

Name, shame and jail: Ghana's undercover journalist

BBC World Service - Outlook, Name, shame and jail: Ghana's undercover journalist

Ghanaian journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas uses some impressive disguises to go undercover

Why Ghanaian investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas disguised himself as a psychiatric patient, as a woman seeking to adopt and as a rock in a barren landscape.

Anas Aremeyaw Anas is very well known in Africa, even though almost no one knows what he looks like. He's a trained lawyer-turned-investigative reporter from Ghana, and a frequent presenter of the BBC's Africa Eye. In his nearly 20 years working undercover he's exposed sex trafficking rings, corrupt judges, and top football officials fixing matches. He goes deep undercover during investigations, and he's disguised himself as a psychiatric patient, a janitor in a brothel and even as a rock in a barren landscape. His work has led to numerous convictions, but his methods are sometimes dangerous and controversial. His latest investigation for BBC Africa Eye is called Corona Quacks, exposing the sale in Ghana of fake 'cures' for coronavirus.

Many American football players train hard because they love the game and want to prove themselves at the the highest level, but Ryan O'Callaghan was playing for a different reason. He was gay and desperate to hide his sexuality from everybody, and he knew the masculine world of football was the perfect place to hide. His career inadvertently took off and he joined a top tier team, the New England Patriots, but his secret was becoming unbearable. An unlikely intervention from a kind stranger turned things around. Ryan's book is called My Life on the Line.

If you are looking for support for any of the issues discussed in this programme, you can find links to useful organisations here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Picture: Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
Credit: BBC Africa Eye.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Outlook

Name, shame and jail: Ghana's undercover journalist

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

About BBC World Service