NMC to regulate religious content in Ghana’s media space

A guideline to help regulate broadcast of religious content in the media in Ghana is expected to be ready by the end of the year.

The guideline ultimately seeks to prevent the use of the airwaves to fan religious extremism in the country.

Even though there has been a level of religious tolerance in Ghana, some religious bodies and sects have used the media in ways that the public has raised an alarm.

Concerns are rife about the use of the media space by some religious leaders to abuse, exploit and take large sums of money from their members.

It is against this backdrop that the National Media Commission (NMC) is spearheading the drafting of the guidelines.

A representative of the Christian Caucus at NMC, Apostle Abraham Ofori – Kuragu explained “the move is to standardize religious activities in the media”.

“The guidelines are going to set out something like a code for those who come on air; electronic media, the radio and the television, use it for the dissemination of all manner of religious messages to abide by a certain standard”, he said.

He said even though the commission had been challenged financially, the reason the process had stalled for a while, the guidelines will be ready for launch soon.

“Funding has been one of the main bottlenecks that has been keeping us back because the NMC as you all know like other constitutional bodies is cash strapped so that one is an issue so we are trying to overcome that hurdle and make sure that the guidelines come out as soon as possible”, he added.

The initiative started in December 2015 by the National Media Commission (NMC) in collaboration with the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), National Communications Authority (NCA) and religious heads.

Mr. Ofori – Kuragu called on other interested stakeholders to submit their inputs before launch of the document.