Lack Of Content Standards Cause Of Media Disorder � NMC

The National Media Commission (NMC) has attributed the open disregard for sanity on the airwaves to the absence of content standards to regulate the activities of the media.

According to the Executive Secretary of the NMC, George Sarpong, various stakeholders have not expressed the desire to devise mechanisms that will censor the information the media churns out.

“The broadcasting is a regulated service and both elements, that is the technical standards and the content standards are supposed to be regulated, but the license you obtain from the NCA only sets the technical standards and not content standards, but no stakeholder in the past thirteen years has raised a single word about this.”

Mr. Sarpong said this in response to recent comments made by two panelists of Accra-based Montie FM who threatened to “finish” the Supreme Court judges if they made any ruling against the Electoral Commission (EC) in the ongoing case to establish the credibility of the voters’ register.

The two were picked up by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), days after they made the comments, but Mr. Sarpong believes the BNI should not have intervened in the issue since the issue is beyond their jurisdiction.

“They are acting in good faith because they think they want to solve a problem, but we don’t believe that it is the best intervention in the circumstances of the matter.” He believes the NMC should rather be given the opportunity to fully exercise its powers rather than involving other state institutions.