The Minister for Information, Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has affirmed Government’s commitment to ensure that the broadcasting bill is laid before parliament.
He stated that the Government had demonstrated enough commitment in terms of laws to deal with free expression in the country.
He cited the Right to Information (RTI) Act and its implementation story as an example of the Government’s commitment with regards to laws to deal with free expression in the country.
Hon. Oppong Nkrumah made the comment when he addressed a stakeholder engagement and research report launch organized by the Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) on the theme “Ensuring accountability in the Governance of media and the Internet” on 17th of January 2024,
According to the Minister, there were still emerging issues that have been raised for consideration following some of the correspondents received from the Attorney General in the 2024 re-drafted version of the broadcasting bill.
The Minister explained that one of the reasons for the delay in laying the bill before Parliament had to do with the definition of the word “Broadcasting.”
He revealed that in the last draft, broadcasting only referred to television without taking note of other forms of technology-led broadcasting.
He also noted some other issues such as responsibility for moderating content in the media space.
According to him, these issues have carefully been studied with a lot of stakeholders to get a certain common position.
“So, if you are on radio and television, broadcasting applies to you, and you are responsible for moderating the content that comes out”, Hon. Oppong Nkrumah stated.
“How about if you move that content onto your Facebook page and somebody wrote under those posts to make comments you will not allow on radio and television be they defamatory or ethnic inciting, do the same rules apply? Shouldn’t they apply?”, the Minister said.
The Minister questioned the responsibilities of the international bodies’ social media platforms with regards to ensuring that some sort of content, which ordinarily one would not allow on television and radio in Ghana being posted on their platforms and further asked if the media house that is operating that platform bare the liability.
Hon. Oppong Nkrumah said that it was important that they got everybody including key stakeholders to align on the key issues that is needed to address before the bill is being laid before parliament.
The Broadcasting Bill is seeking to regulate and sanitize the broadcasting space in Ghana.
Source: MOI (PR Unit)
