President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has directed the Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, to suspend her directives to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) as regards its occupation on the national digital terrestrial television (DTT) network. The president’s directive, on Thursday, July 23, is to allow for further consultation with stakeholders. Mrs Owusu-Ekuful had directed the national broadcaster as well as Crystal TV to reduce their channels on the DTT network. According to her, the move was to create redundancy on the network. In the case of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), channels were to be reduced from six to three while Crystal TV was to reduce its channels to one, just like all others on the network. This did not go down well with the public service broadcaster, which in turn petitioned the National Media Commission (NMC) for “urgent intervention”. The Commission on Wednesday pronounced that the Minister’s directives were in contravention of the 1992 Constitution with regard to media freedom and that Mrs Owusu-Ekuful’s directives cannot be obliged. President Akufo-Addo’s directive, therefore, comes to put paid to the whole rumpus. Source: 3news.com|Ghana ]]>