[ad_1]
Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Minister of Information, reiterated that Government respects freedom of speech and expression as enshrined in Article 21(1) of the 1992 Constitution.
“Indeed, as we have always maintained, we prefer ugly noises to the culture of silence,” Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said in Parliament in response to a question from Mr. Vincent Ekow Assafuah, Member of Parliament (MP) for Old Tafo.
Mr Carlos Kingsley Ahenkra, MP for Tema West, on behalf of Mr Assafuah, asked the minister about the efforts the Ministry of Information was making to promote decency and sanity on the nation’s airwaves.
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said: “We recognize that our media today is facing a number of challenges that have affected its performance.”
He noted that the media landscape in Ghana has changed significantly as a result of the introduction of the 1992 Constitution; saying, “Truly the landscape has undergone a radical transformation in the last three decades.”
“Today, we have 684 frequency authorizations for FM radio stations and 141 stations across the country.
“Of the total number of authorized FM radio stations, 489 stations are currently operational as of the fourth quarter of 2021,” the minister said.
The minister said that they cannot count the numerous YouTube channels and other social media apps that offer all kinds of content every day.
He said the development has introduced a refreshing plurality of voices that promote democracy and participation in governance and development.
He said that despite these developments, the media environment faces several challenges, including general gaps in media capacity and the lack of a comprehensive legal framework for media regulation, especially as it relates to content.
The others are lack of transformation in media institutions, decline in reporting quality, low level of professionalism and inadequate training and competence gaps, lack of funding, poor working conditions and enabling conditions and inability to maintain quality and retain the right people .
“Mr. Speaker, these challenges can be directly attributed to the low level of decency and common sense that plagues our media landscape today.”
He said it was to this end that the Ministry of Information, together with media stakeholders, had introduced several interventions aimed at addressing media issues including content in the short and long term.
He mentioned some of the interventions such as the media capacity building program and the drafting of the radio and radio bill.
Others are cooperation with the National Media Commission (NMC) and the National Communications Authority (NCA) on unethical conduct and the signing of a memorandum of cooperation on content regulation in Ghana.
“While we believe that this House will pass the Broadcasting Bill when it is introduced, we call on all stakeholders who have signed the MoU to act within their current statutory mandates to ensure that we enjoy the decency , which we hope for on our air”, said the minister.
Source: GNA
[ad_2]
Source link