CoTA Launch (POLITICS)

15.11.11

CoTA Launch (POLITICS) - Ownership of TV, radio by politicians undermines Ghana’s democracy

Seth J. Bokpe & Zoe Darling

THE Executive Director of Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Prof Kwame Karikari, has expressed grave concern for democracy in the country due to the increasing ownership of radio and television frequencies by politicians.

 At the launch of the Coalition for Transparency of the Airwaves (CoTA) in Accra on Tuesday, Prof Karikari said that lack of free access to the airwaves, particularly radio and television, posed serious dangers to pluralism and to freedom of speech and expression.

“Besides the threat of politicians taking over the airwaves by means of a lack of transparency in the allocation of frequencies, many voices will become silenced “, he said.

“These dangers must be stopped. And it can only be stopped by public expression of opposition to acts and omissions that close the doors to the expression of different and contrary viewpoints on airwaves.”

With more than 15 civil society organisations as members, the CoTA has among its objectives the promotion of genuine pluralism of voices on the airwaves, advocating the expeditious allocation of broadcast frequencies to genuine community radio applicants and promoting equity and transparency in the allocation and management of broadcast frequencies.

Additionally, CoTA advocates the passage of and adherence to a Broadcasting Law that is in keeping with international best practice.

Prof Karikari said since 1992, all governments had failed to pass a broadcasting law that made access to the airwaves transparent and democratic.

The Chairman of the National Peace Council, Most Rev Prof Emmanuel Asante, who launched the initiative, said the influence of the electronic media could not be underestimated and it raised a whole lot of ethical issues for those who controlled them in respect of the country’s political process.

Those who control the media, he noted, could be assumed to control the state hence the need to ensure that the broadcast media met the needs of society.

The President of the Ghana Journalists Association, Mr Ransford Tetteh, stated that Ghanaians must not remain oblivious to the challenges in the broadcast media, especially the use of intemperate language by some radio stations during elections.

With another election on the horizon, he observed that it was not in the interest of peace in the country if there was no broadcasting legislation to guide it.

Mr Tetteh said it was the hope of the GJA that, “CoTA will guide and enhance the legitimate public interest in policy, law and regulation in the broadcast industry and thus help in nurturing for Ghana a more professional, vibrant, transparent and accountable broadcast industry.”

Issues concerning frequency allocation have been a subject of controversy especially between members of the Ghana Community Radio Network (GCRN) and frequency regulators of the National Communication Authority (NCA) with the GCRN accusing the NCA of using excessive bureaucratic processes to deny its members frequencies.

In that regard, Prof Audrey Gadzekpo, a senior lecturer of the School of Communication Studies of the University of Ghana, observed that transparency standards in the NCA were below international standards.

“We can also conclude from what we know that there is no equity in allocation and access. While we may think we have plurality, if we see it only in terms of numbers, plurality goes beyond numbers. We need to ask: do we have plurality in media types, cultural, geographic, gender and pluralism?” she asked.