NCA erred in shutting down Radio Gold, Radio XYZ – GIBA

The Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) says that the National Communication Authority (NCA) erred in its move of shutting down Radio Gold and Radio XYZ. GIBA president Andrew Danso Aninkora expressed concern over the “harsh” approach the NCA adopted in dealing with the media companies whose licenses had expired. He made this observation on 3FM’s Sunrise morning show with Winston Amoah. Officials of the NCA raided the premises of the two stations on Thursday, May 9 with security personnel to order the immediate closure of the two stations. According to Mr. Aninkora, the Electronic Communication Tribunal (ECT)  in its ruling reproved the NCA for choosing the “harsher” option when there were other options available. “But then you [the NCA] chose the harsher one. Unfortunately in implementing the harsher one, you made a mistake. And that is what the court ruled that you have other options but you use this particular one. But in applying this particular one, you applied it in the wrong time. So therefore that one will not apply.” Managers of Radio XYZ,  however, alleged that they had on two occasions sent bank drafts through GT Bank with an amount of GHȻ11,165 to the NCA to fulfill the orders of the ECT. The NCA allegedly declined to deal with Radio XYZ on the premise that its license had expired and it could only deal with them when the station re-applied for a frequency. The GIBA president was of the view that the right decision was for the communication regulatory authority to have adopted a dialogue approach in dealing with the issue. “What in my view could have helped was to have given everybody an opportunity, or write back to everybody that listen, all of you who got involved with this issue, now the court has said this, so come and apply and pay your money and then let’s start on a fresh note but this never happened.” By Paul Selorm Agbo | 3news.com | Ghana]]>