Government respects freedom of speech – Information Minister
Source: aveaonetv
Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah
Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has reiterated that the Government respects freedom of speech and expression as captured under Article 21(1) of the 1992 Constitution.
“Indeed, as we've constantly maintained, we choose unsightly noises to a way of life of silence,” Mr Oppong Nkrumah said on the floor of Parliament in his reaction to a question by Mr Vincent Ekow Assafuah, Member of Parliament (MP) for Old Tafo.
Mr Carlos Kingsley Ahenkrah, the MP for Tema West, on behalf of Mr Assafuah, asked the Minister about efforts the Information Ministry was installing place to sell decorum and sanity on the state’s airwaves.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah said: “We admit that our media nowadays is confronted with a number of challenges that have affected their performance.”
He referred to that the media landscape in Ghana had changed significantly because of the introduction of the 1992 Constitution; announcing “Indeed, the panorama has undergone radical transformation in the remaining 3 a long time.”
“Today, we've got 684 frequency authorizations for FM radio stations and 141 stations across the us of a.
“Out of the whole range of authorised FM broadcasting stations, 489 stations are currently operational as at fourth zone, 2021,” the Minister stated.
The Minister stated they had been unable to rely the severa youtube channels and other social media apps that provide all styles of content every day.
He said the tendencies had added a fresh pluralism onto voices that had promoted democracy and participation in governance and development.
He said despite these developments, the media landscape become confronted with numerous challenges together with preferred capability gaps of the media, and shortage of a complete legal framework to modify the media specifically in terms of content.
The rest are loss of transformation in media establishments, decline in reporting first-class, low degree of professionalism and insufficient schooling and competency gaps, lack funding, poor working and conducive situations, and incapability to hold high-quality and hold relevant people.
“Mr Speaker, these demanding situations can at once be attributed to the low degree of decorum and sanity that has bedeviled our media panorama these days.”
He stated it became to this stop that the Ministry of Information, together with media stakeholders, had added some interventions aimed toward addressing the problems of the media together with content material within the quick-time period and the long-term.
He noted some of the interventions together with media potential enhancement programme and the drafting of a Broadcasting Bill.
Others are a collaboration with the National Media Commission (NMC) and the National Communications Authority (NCA) on unethical behaviour and signing of a memorandum of cooperation on content regulation in Ghana.
“While we believe that this House will bypass the Broadcasting Bill whilst provided, we urge all stakeholders who have signed at the memorandum of cooperation to act within their current criminal mandates to make sure that we revel in the decorum we hope for on our airwaves,” the Minister stated.
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