The Ghana National Media Commission (NMC) has admitted that it is unable to systematically monitor the media because their monitoring system has broken down for a while.
Mr. George Sarpong, the Executive Secretary of the NMC explained their broken-down monitoring system was a syllabus system that enabled the NMC to monitor different stations at the same time and sometimes specific programs.
“The strategy of monitoring offers an opportunity to know where the problematic content could be and where to place resources in terms of monitoring. For example we know from data that football content doesn’t generate too much controversies for regulatory people so we won’t have to place resources there” he stated.
“As of now our monitoring system is completely down. We constructed a world class monitoring system with the support of the European Union (EU). We did this by making a huge promises to the EU that the state of Ghana is going to do a number of things to support us” the NMC executive secretary revealed.
According to him, the government of Ghana on its part was to provide a suitable accommodation for the equipment, and support NMC to recruit and train professional staff to manage the process but the state reneged on its obligation till the system broke down.
Mr. George Sarpong told Johnnie Hughes on 3FM Sunrise Morning Show that the NMC has now resorted to a manual system that focuses on specific media outlets that have been on their regulatory attention for some time now with a special focus on radio stations in Bawku due to the ongoing conflict over there.
Per its mandate “The NMC exists to ensure that there is promotion of free, independent and responsible media so as to sustain democracy with a media that is independent from other organs of state. In order to promote these goals NMC is committed to maintain its independence from political influence. It shall ensure that the state owned media is independent from government control. It shall raise professional standards among media practitioners and ensure fairness to the public. It shall protect journalists from harassment and penalties arising out of their editorial opinions or content.”
However the executive of the commission affirmed that what the NMC is doing currently is not the best way to monitor and regulate the media and further entreats stakeholders to build consensus on a regulatory framework.
By Samuel Afriyie Owusu|3news.com|Ghana