Ghana’s Ministry of Communications is to introduce a bill to Parliament soon to regulate broadcasting standards in the country. The acting Director General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Major J R K Tandoh, speaking at the NCA’s first Consultative Forum in Accra. says the broadcast Bill will stipulate regulations on ownership and operation of the electronic Media.
The plan to formulate a bill to regulate the electronic Media comes more than ten years after the liberalization of the airwaves. During this period, more than 160 companies around the country were licensed to operate, with an estimated 120 stations currently operating in the country, apart from the state broadcaster.
Major Tandoh noted that the Media Commission has been a partner in promoting better standards in the absence of a comprehensive Act of Parliament, however the time has come to regulate the industry properly with a broadcasting act and the forums is one of many steps being taken to collate views on the bill.
Participants at the forum included Media owners and practitioners. They saw presentations on the migration of the broadcast industry from analogue to digital within eight years.
(Source: JoyOnline.com/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)