Unmask faces behind radio stations
Ghana currently boasts 125 registered television stations, with 72 operational.
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Authorisation has also been given to 354 FM stations across the country, out of which 291 are operational.
However, the ownership of most of the stations, as well as the allocation of frequencies, has been shrouded in secrecy, according to speakers at a roundtable on media ethics and transparency in frequency allocation organised by the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) yesterday.
It was sponsored by STAR-Ghana.
The President of the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), Mr Akwasi Agyemang, told participants that the association was concerned about the issue of transparency in the allocation of frequencies, as it had a direct bearing on its operations.
“We believe that the media are a business. If they are not seen that way, there will be serious ethical issues,” he stated.
The GIBA President buttressed his assertion with the fact that there were currently over 300 radio stations that had been granted licences, with each making an average of GH¢30,000 monthly and others making more.
According to Mr Agyemang, the stations were not being monitored to establish whether they were doing the things for which they were granted frequencies.
He said some of the stations took licences for sports, for instance, but were engaged in political propaganda.
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He was of the view that many of the stations that had been allocated frequencies and licences to operate were not on the airwaves because they did not have the basic requirements and capital to establish stations.
He said most of them just went for the frequencies and later went round to inquire what was needed to set up.
He alluded to the fact that the allocation of media frequencies was a ploy to kill the media.
Mr Agyeman asked for the aggregation of the National Media Commission (NMC) and the National Communications Authority (NCA), so that the NMC would have the power to issue licences based on business plans submitted.
He also asked for the bar to be raised in the allocation of frequencies through bank guarantees on the capability of aspiring media owners.
“We need a Ghanaian television station that dominates Africa,” he said, stating that foreign soap operas now dominated television programming because there was no proper regulation, while the cost of production was high.
Opaqueness of allocation
The Director of Newspapers of the GCGL, Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, stated that the lack of transparency that existed in 1994 after the airwaves had been liberalised still existed today.
He noted that there was so much opaqueness in how the NCA conducted its activities.
Ms Adwoa Oforiwaa Turkson, a researcher with the GCGL, said according to the findings of a study on the allocation of frequencies in Ghana, the problem was not about content but the transparency in the management of the airwaves.
She also said there was secrecy of data on applicants for frequencies which was accentuated by the refusal of respondents to answer the question on media ownership.
“The research found that members of society are unhappy and civil society organisations (CSOs), such as the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), among many others, have asked for transparency,” she said.
Writer’s email: Edmund.Asante@graphic.com.gh