President Akufo-Addo has directed Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekufful to suspend her directive to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation to shut down three of its Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) channels.
The Presidential directive gave no explanation for the decision.
The minister in a letter to the state broadcaster said the move is to free up space on the platform. However, GBC has taken the matter to the NMC to intervene.
In a statement, the National Media Commission (NMC) has said the Communication Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, is undermining the constitutional rights of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation by ordering the broadcaster to shut down three of its Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) channels.
“It is the view of the Commission that any action by any entity which culminates into limiting or depriving the media of the use of public resources legitimately allocated to them undermines their capacity to serve the nation as anticipated by the Constitution.
The commission added, “the directive given to GBC and Crystal TV by the Minister for Communications purports to usurp the constitutional mandate and authority of the National Media Commission and same cannot be obliged under our current constitutional dispensation.
To put our concerns on the DTT in context, we wish to state that the National Media Commission has always held and articulated the foregoing view since the process of migration started a little over a decade ago. In the intense partisanship of public policy debate in Ghana, we feel obliged to reiterate that this is not only a matter of fact but also that of principle.”
