President directs Communications Minister to suspend GBC’s channel reduction

President Nana Akufo-Addo has directed the Communications Minister to suspend the DTT directive given to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).

The Director of Communications at the Office of the President, Eugene Arhin, in a statement, said the directive was to allow further consultations with stakeholders.

The state broadcaster and the Ministry of Communications have been involved in a turf war over the ownership of the six channels GBC and extra channels Crystal TV,  a private broadcaster, operate.

The ministry had in a letter directed GBC to shut down three of its channels to free part of the choked system for national security usage as well as to meet the needs of a backlog of applicants.

But the state broadcaster took the matter to the National Media Commission for redress.

The commission was of the view that the Communications Minister’s decision to close three channels of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation undermined the constitutional rights of the state corporation.

It argued that the directive by the ministry had no place in the current constitutional dispensation.

Adding its voice, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), had also asked the ministry to refrain from what it described as an ‘illegality’.

The MFWA argued that the directive undermined “relevant constitutional and regulatory provisions on institutional governance and operational independence of the state broadcaster.”

The company currently operates, GBC News (GTV Governance and GBC 24 merged), Obonu TV, GTV Life, GTV, GTV Sports Plus, and Ghana Learning TV.

Below is the statement from the Presidency