By: Ewoenam Kpodo | Voltaonlinegh.com |
Nana Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng, Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC) has proposed self regulation on the part of media houses to avoid flooding the homes of Ghanaians with indecent content when the country goes digital from 2019.
According to him, self regulation in terms of content in the media is necessary to protecting the cultural values, thus, projecting the Ghanaian identity.
Nana Gyan-Apenteng was reacting to suggestions at a public forum on constitutional and legal implications on digital migration from participants that the NMC institutes sanctions to enforce some form of compliance from content producers on our screens.
The NMC Boss said attempting to enforce compliance from content producers will result in media censorship and that the Commission cannot risk going back to the era of culture of silence that stifled the Ghanaian media before the country’s return to constitutional rule in 1992.
He said on the global freedom of expression index (freedom of the media), Ghana currently occupies the first spot in Africa and 23rd in the world adding that it is good for the country’s growing democracy and everyone’s responsibility to “guard freedom of the media jealously.”
The forum which was organised on Friday by the Commission in collaboration with the Fredrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) in the Volta regional capital, Ho, was attended by various stakeholders including media experts, officials from the NMC, National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), the security and traditional authorities.
Deputy Executive Secretary to the NMC, Mr. Alexander Bannerman spoke on progress the Ghana government has made so far in the area of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) infrastructure in preparedness for the digital migration next year.
He explained that in digital migration, the various channels will be hyped onto a multiplexer to be managed by a Central Digital Transmission (CDT) Company to transmit the signals. He added that unlike the analog, the DTT comes with some advantages including sharp pictures, clear sounds, and more channels.
Resident Director, FES, Mr. Michael Abbey in his statement called for the need to entrust the platform into the right hands to avoid foreign intrusion into the Ghanaian media to the detriment of the citizenry.
The participants also charged the NMC which is the body the Constitution of Ghana enjoins to ensure the freedom and independence of the media, to rise up to the occasion and commission management of the CDT company to insulate the state-owned media from governmental control.
Source: www.voltaonlinegh.com
