We don’t have resources and capacity to monitor 2020 elections - NMC

The National Media Commission (NMC) has said it does not have the resources and capacity to monitor the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.

This was disclosed by the Executive Secretary of the NMC Mr. George Sarpong when he appeared before the Public Accounts Committee on Friday, September 11, 2020.

He was responding to questions asked by a member of the Committee Mr. Samuel Nartey George including the preparedness of the NMC to monitor the elections.

Mr. Sarpong in his response said ”are we prepared to monitor the 2020 elections? That sadly is no. We do not have the resources and the capacity to be able to monitor election 2020”.

According to him, they are working towards alternative approaches to regulatory systems that can still help the NMC make some necessary interventions.

He revealed the NMC is almost completing a technology that enables them to monitor the media broadly and better than what it has previously done.

The NMC he explained is building an integrated system that enables crowd and citizens input into the process.

He said citizens would be required to send information to the NMC should they discover information from the media that is of concern to them [citizens].

The material he added is location stamped and makes it easier to tell where the information is coming from.

The system he stated would also help the NMC pick incidents at constituencies and polling stations during the elections and tell whether it is authentic or not.

He said the technology will also help them do reverse analysis in order to address the issue of fake news.

He concluded by stating that he has written to the EC for collaboration on this technology for the 2020 polls.