44 Television stations hot: NMC angry over indecent, offensive content

The National Media Commission (NMC) has cited 44 television (TV) stations for broadcasting unethical, indecent and offensive content.

A public announcement by the NMC has directed owners of the 44 stations to meet with the commission on Thursday, October 31, 2024.

“Owners of the media houses are invited to a discussion with the National Media Commission on the regulatory implications of their broadcast content,” the announcement stated.

The Executive Secretary of the NMC, George Sarpong, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, disclosed that the television stations were cited because they broadcasted content on pornography, indecency, fake lottery, occultism, money doubling claims, and money rituals.

He explained that the 44 stations were found to have broadcasted the impugned content during a regular joint monitoring by the commission and the National Communications Authority (NCA).

“We have actively been doing media monitoring. The 44 stations were found to have broadcasted indecent and offensive content that negatively affect society, and, therefore, have regulatory implication,” he said.

On what sanctions would be meted out to the 44 stations, Mr Sarpong said the NMC would issue a final warning to them at the October 31 meeting.

“We are going to have a conversation with them. For now, we are going to warn them for the final time. We have given them earlier warnings, and this is going to be the final warning,” he said.

“Moving forward, any station that is not ready to abide by decent content will have itself to blame,” he added.

When asked if that meant a possible revocation of licences, Mr Sarpong said “everything is on the table”.

He explained that the action against the 44 television stations was quite different from the regulatory action the commission was undertaking against media houses that allowed their platforms to be used for hateful speeches that brought about divisions by inciting people

“This category of offences is different from other offences such as hateful speech. With those ones, the punishment is greater and we will not have any kind of dialogue with them, as we are doing with these ones,” he added. 

Content regulations

In 2016, the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional a law that required media owners to seek content approval from the NMC before publication.

The seven-member panel held that certain regulations in the NMC (Content Standards) Regulations 2015 (L.I. 2224) amounted to censorship and contravened Article 162 Clause (4) of the 1992 Constitution.

The regulations required media owners to apply for content authorisation, submit programme guide and content for approval, and to go by a set of rules stipulated by the NMC or in default pay a fine or serve between two and five years in jail.

Not happy with that aspect of L.I. 2224, the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) dragged the NMC and the Attorney-General to the apex court, leading to the court decision.

Mandate

However, Mr Sarpong explained that despite the court’s decision, the NMC still had the mandate to sanitise the media space, disagreeing that its current move amounted to censorship.

He said the commission had taken the current action in partnership with the NCA, which had the legal backing to revoke the licences of broadcast media houses that violated the NCA Act.

“Now, what we are doing is that the NCA has provisions in their Act, upon which they can revoke the licences of broadcasting stations. The current approach is that we are using our own inherent powers and the laws given to the NCA to address these issues,” he said.

Mr Sarpong said the judgment by the Supreme Court made it difficult for the country to strengthen its regulatory framework to ensure that vulnerable groups such as children were protected from certain offensive media content.

He said many countries had enacted legislations that had sanitised the media space, and also protected the right of the media to educate, inform and entertain the public.

“We accept and respect the judgment of the court, but we disagree with the reasoning. A lot of the problems that you see in the media are as a result of that decision by the Supreme Court,” he added.

Writer’s email: emma.hawkson@graphic.com.gh