Joy FM apologises to Government

Accra, May 4, GNA - Joy FM, an Accra private radio station, has apologised for carrying a story implicating Government functionaries in the smuggling of heroin into the US by Mr Eric Amoateng, Member of Parliament (MP) for Nkoranza North.

A statement signed by Mr Paul Adu-Gyamfi, Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), on Thursday said the Solicitor of Joy FM, Dr P. E. Bonzie-Simpson conceded that there were some factual errors in the interview one Nana Darko Busia granted the station's reporter. It said Dr Bonzie-Simpson rendered unqualified apologies to the Government and expressed Joy FM's willingness to retract the erroneous statements made by Nana Darko Busia.

The statement said Mr Dan Botwe, Former Minister of Information, had lodged a complaint against the radio station, its Management and Mr Kofi Abotchie, the radio station's reporter in the US, with the NMC. The Joy FM story alleged that some top Government Ministers and Functionaries had been implicated in the alleged smuggling of heroin into the US by Mr Amoateng.

Mr Botwe denied the allegations and described them as unfounded. He asked for a retraction of the story as far as it affected the Government and its Ministers and the rendering of unqualified apologies to the Government and its Ministers and also putting to an end that kind of report about the Government and its functionaries.

The statement said the NMC after going into the merits and demerits of the story directed the radio station to purchase a column in a widely circulated daily to advertise its apologies to the Government. It said the apologies should be announced in all its prime news consecutively for two days and that the directive should be carried out within 14 days from April 24.

The NMC said it found that no top Government Minister had been implicated in the alleged criminality of Mr Amoateng and that Nana Darko Busia was not Mr Amoateng's Lawyer and could not be privy to any investigation of Government officials.