National Media Commission asked to withdraw guidelines

The management of Searchlight, an Accra-based newspaper, has asked the National Media Commission (NMC) to withdraw the guidelines it issued to the print and electronic media, saying they constitute direct interference in the work of the media and amount to censorship.

A release issued in Accra on Wednesday signed by Mr Kenneth Agyei Kuranchie, Managing Editor of the paper and copied to the Executive Secretary of the NMC, noted that by the promulgation of the guidelines, the commission "has broken out of its constitutional boundaries to launch a very direct attack on free expression, conscience and belief".

It said the commission's demand of editors to accord the same prominence to rejoinders as original news items and carry such rejoinders without editing and comment within a specific time frame is in direct violation of articles 167 (d) and 173 of the constitution.

The claim of the duty of NMC "policing" the media, the release said, directly contravenes article 167, the constitutional provision on the functions of the NMC.

The management of the Searchlight said it is most worried of the call by the commission for "the creation of internal mechanisms of censorship", saying such mechanisms "will obviously work under the general guidelines of the NMC, an order which is quite at variance to Article 162(2) of the 1992 Constitution".

It said if the guidelines are put into practice, they "will cause great harm to the artistic and cultural industry as it exists in the country", and also serve to retard the growth of individual thought beliefs and enterprise because "one cannot afford to think, write or profess a certain belief, unless it falls within the NMC's guidelines."

The release said media practitioners are already aware of their responsibilities and asked the Media Commission not to be hostile to the media, but rather assist them to achieve the best.