In a rather bizarre attempt to extricate itself from the misstep of attempting to shut down some channels of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has not been asked to close down any of its channels.
According to him, rather GBC has been given three slots on the Digital Terrestrial Transmission platform (DTT) instead of the six slots that the state broadcaster normally operates.
“I as sector minister have not asked them to shut down any channel. Nobody has asked them to shut down any channel. GBC is currently operating their six channels on their T1 platform and if they decide to add four or five more channels, they can do that.” The Minister said in an interview on Accra-based Citi FM.
The Minister’s explanation flies in the face of official letters written recently to GBC by the Minister of Communications Ursula Owusu-Ekuful.
In Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful’s letter to GBC dated June 26, 2020, she gave the GBC a 60-day ultimatum to scrap their TV channels or face the consequence that will be meted out to it.
“…The Ministry hereby notifies you of its intention to reduce the number of channels your outfit currently occupies on the National Digital Terrestrial Television network from six (6) to three (3) channels. This is to ensure that there is redundancy on the national DTT platform which is currently at full capacity,” the letter ordered.
In response to the Communication Minister’s letter, the GBC wrote a letter to the media commission, virtually pleading to be saved from shutting down three of its channels.
In the letter dated July 7, 2020, the GBC wrote: “…complying with the request of the Minister will mean GBC has to lose 3 of these channels. It will virtually mean the BGC will have to reduce its operations by half.”
The GBC letter signed by Prof. Amin Alhassan, the Director-General of GBC decried the impending budgetary and human resource challenge that GBC will be faced with the shutdown.
In her letter, Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful curiously stated that the GBC will be given back the lost channels but cited the COVID-19 Pandemic as the reasons why that will delay. “Kindly note that upon the planned future expansion of capacity on the network, which has been delayed due to the current pandemic and the uncertainties generated in the global supply chains, you will be allocated additional channels.
GBC currently operates GTV, GBC News, GTV Sports+, GBC Obonu, GTV Life, and Ghana Learning TV.
Whatsup News has gathered that the order for GBC to shut down its channels is a clever ploy by the Akufo Addo administration to sell off these channels to a private operator with connections to China.
Meanwhile, a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Volta River Authority and founder of Radio Eye, Dr. Charles Wereko Brobbey says the directive from the Ministry of Communications is an attack on media freedom.
“On the appropriateness of the action, I will refer you to Article 167(c) of the Constitution which says the National Media Commission shall shield all state media houses from interference from government. The Minister for Communications is a member of government and GBC is a state-owned media. If you actually ask people to reduce, you can interpret it as interference from the government on the business of a state broadcaster. What we fought for is for the media to be independent of government control and the person who defended the action we fought for is now President of Ghana so let him interpret what it means. The power of the President to prescribe and to ensure what the constitution of Ghana sets down,” Mr. Brobbey told Citi FM.