Stakeholders to clamp down on unethical broadcast content

Stakeholders in the broadcasting sector have agreed to work in close ties to clamp down unethical broadcast content and regulate media excesses in the country.

They gave the assurance at a consultative meeting held last Friday under the auspices of the Ministry of Information to dialogue on how to regulate contents produced on broadcast media in the country.

The forum which sought to galvanize solutions and take inputs from relevant stakeholders in the drafting of a comprehensive broadcasting bill in a manner consistent with the 1992 constitution was attended by representatives from the Ministry of Communication and Digitalization, Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development, the Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General’s Department, the National Media Commission (NMC), the National Communication Authority (NCA), the National Security Secretariat, the Bank of Ghana, the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), the Communication Select Committee of Parliament among a host of stakeholders.

Addressing journalists at the consultative meeting in Accra on Sunday, April 18, 2021, Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah read out a communique detailing the outcome of the engagement.

According to the communique, stakeholders have agreed to work in close collaboration to tackle unethical media content.

“To address the question of unethical broadcast content, stakeholders agreed to set up a joint stakeholder group under the National Media Commission to examine reports of unethical content and invoke the powers of the National Communication Authority, to take punitive action against offending broadcasters,” the communique said.

In doing so, stakeholders will sign up to a Memorandum of Co-operation within 14 days of the meeting, formalizing arrangements for action by setting up a joint stakeholder group as a committee of the NMC in accordance with section 10 of the NMC Act, 1993 (ACT 449) to among other things monitor the broadcasting landscape, provide an early warning system for flagging unethical broadcast and recommend appropriate remedies to relevant regulatory bodies.

The communique also said the engagement examined key issues being considered in the development of a broadcasting law for Ghana stating that stakeholders have agreed to submit formal written memos on the bill to assist in the formulation of a final draft.