Accra, March 5, GNA - The National Media Commission (NMC) on Wednesday said it was studying a draft bill on broadcasting to ensure effective public broadcasting in the country.
Mr. Paul Adu-Gyamfi, Chairman of the Commission told the GNA; "We have received a draft bill from a media advocacy group which we are scrutinizing.
If it is fine tuned we will forward it to Parliament for it to be enacted into law".
Mr. Adu-Gyamfi made this known after Mr. Ransford Tetteh, President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) had presented a communiqu=E9 to the National Media Commission on the way forward for Public Service Broadcasting in Ghana.
The report was the outcome of the findings from a series of consultative fora held by the GJA in the last quarter of 2007 on the state of public service broadcasting in Ghana. The NMC Chairman said the bill would codify broadcasting law, spell out functions, structures and responsibilities of the media to provide the Commission the legal backing to sanctions members who would flout the law.
Mr. Adu-Gyamfi affirmed that, an efficient public broadcaster was critical to national development and that all efforts would be made to ensure that Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) performed its role to foster national unity and promote civic responsibility. Presenting the communiqu=E9, Mr Tetteh said GBC's professionalism and impartiality during election 2008 was critical since the public goodwill for the Corporation would be eroded if it considered its coverage as being skewed in favour of particular political or sectarian persuasion.
"Ghanaians are more discerning now and any acts or omissions that undermine the provisions of the constitution will be frowned upon. I am however hopeful that the present Management and Board of GBC and indeed all state owned media will live up to the challenge." Mr. Berifi Apenteng, a Media Consultant said expert opinion from the fora in the five regions - Northern, Western, Ashanti, Eastern and Volta indicated that the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) was well-placed to be transformed into a true public service broadcaster if its statute of incorporation was reviewed to state its functions more clearly and comprehensively.
He said funding GBC to play the unique role in public service broadcasting would give voice to all shades of opinions thereby strengthening democratic culture in the country. Mr. Apenteng said the new law should make appropriate arrangement for independent financing of Public Service Broadcasting whose common mandate was to inform, educate and entertain to improve society and not for commercial gains. He said for 60 years, GBC had been the only public service broadcasting station in the country but with the plurality in the current broadcasting environment, GBC had lost most of its workforce to the new stations and that the station should be allowed to derive funds from a variety of sources which would complement each other to enable it to train its staff to meet the current trends in technology and programming.
Mr. Apenteng said the NMC should be empowered by Constitutional Instrument to increase the TV licence fee to avoid the situation where politicians dragged their feet with the fear of public backlash and that taxes on imported radio and TV sets and mobile phone usage should be paid into a fund to support public service broadcasting. The communiqu=E9 said funding for public service broadcasting should come from public sources and must be substantial to prevent marginalisation of the sector.
It said programming for public service broadcasting should aim at improving society and must be reviewed to ensure that they were in line with its public service broadcasting mandate. The communiqu=E9 noted, among other things, that the management of GBC should have a security of tenure, based on an objective performance contract and adopt sound management principle and practices to ensure an effective, efficient and transparent use of resources.
