Government Reacts To Radio Gold, XYZ Closure (AUDIO)

Government has debunked claims that the closure of two pro-opposition radio stations; Radio XYZ and Radio Gold is politically motivated.

The two radio stations were closed down by officials of the National Communications Authority (NCA) on Thursday.

The political twist came in because, at the time of the shutdown, one of the radio stations was transmitting a press conference being held by the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The Member of Parliament for North Tongu constituency, Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa in a tweet, described the closure as 'whimsical, capricious and cowardly'.

But speaking in an interview on Citi Eyewitness news, Thursday, Minister of Communication, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah denied the fact that the closure was politically motivated.

According to him, “I am very sure some persons would speculate that this exercise appears to be an action against the two radio stations that may appear to be unaligned to the current administration. But the brief I have is that this exercise cuts across various user of spectrums who have been cautioned that they had been operating without authorization for some years now. And this exercise has been going on for a year now...but the fact will remain sacrosanct at any point. The fact remains that what we are talking about is electronic spectrum...it is the ruling of the Electronic Communications Tribunal (ECT)..."

National Communications Authority (NCA)

The NCA has revealed that the validation for both Radio Gold and Radio XYZ expired in the year 2000 and 2016 respectively as determined by the 2017 FM Broadcasting Audit and that during the FM Spectrum Audit in 2017, some stations were found to be in default and were fined by the Authority; however, some of the stations in default like Radio Gold and Radio XYZ were not satisfied and preceded to the various courts; ECT and the High Court to appeal against the NCA’s decision.

“This resulted in a decision by the ECT in 2018 which reviewed the status of expired FM, Radio Broadcasting Authorizations and which ruled among others that Companies whose authorizations had expired reverted to the same position as a fresh applicant. While some stations shut down following this decision, others did not” the Authority added at a press conference.