Asempa Fm Apologises To NPP

The management of Asempa 94.7FM has rendered an unqualified apology to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the biased slant it adapted for its afternoon political talk programme, “Eko sie sen”. Before starting the programme on Thursday, the host, Bobie Ansah read out a letter of apology to the NPP, in English, which according to him was prepared together with his production crew of Dominic Kusi Yeboah and Barimah Twum, as well as the Programmes Director and entire management of Multimedia Broadcasting company. Bellow is a transcript of the said apology:

The management of Asempa FM wishes to render an unqualified apology to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for any acts of commission or omission considered inappropriate, on its current affairs programme, “Eko sie sen”. We would like to take this opportunity to state that we at Asempa FM value the contribution of all participants to the political discourse on the station and welcome the NPP’s representatives back on the Station, as we all strive to make Ghana great and strong. We welcome our brothers and sisters in the NPP with open arms back on Eko sie sen on Asempa 94.7FM. We thank you all and we love NPP, but as and when we need to state our case/point, that one we will not compromise. Help us God.

Obviously delighted at the attention his biased handling of the programme has generated, and clearly oblivious to how his unprofessionalism tarnishes the image of journalism he went on to undermine the essence of his apology. “Though the NPP has stated that it has not been wronged by Asempa FM, it insists that it has been wronged by the station’s programme “Eko sie sen and that is what makes this programme so great. If you are not great, nobody talks about you; when you do things which do not impact on society, nobody talks about you”, he bragged.

It will be recalled that in October 2011, the communications directorate of the New Patriotic Party took a decision not to participate in any radio programme on Asempa FM and accordingly served notice to its entire membership to abide by this decision.

The decision of the party, was borne out of the deliberate policy of ‘Eko sie sen’, a current affairs programme on Asempa FM, to continually focus its programming agenda on attacking the Presidential Candidate of the NPP, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and the party as a whole.

This sustained campaign by ‘Eko sie sen’ of attacking Nana Addo had been ongoing for the last couple of years, and thus prompted the party to register its displeasure, firstly through protests to Multimedia Group, and then through the boycott of Asempa FM.

That NPP on several occasions protested about the incessant attacks on the party by ‘Eko sie sen’ to Kwesi Twum, the Chief Executive Officer of Multimedia Group, the mother company of Asempa FM, but these protests went unheeded by the CEO.

The NPP, thus, had no choice but to proceed along the line of action it took since its reservations were not addressed by the CEO of Multimedia.

What remains to be seen is whether the NPP will accept the apology of Nana Bobie Ansah and Multimedia Group, and return its representatives to the radio station’s political talk programmes.

BY Yaw P. K. Manu