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Director-General of National Communications Authority (NCA), Mr. Joe Anokye has revealed that two Accra based private media outfits; Radio Gold and Radio XYZ, which were shut down on Thursday May 9, 2019, had been operating without valid authorization for 19 years and 3 years respectively.

According to him, the validation for both Radio Gold and Radio XYZ expired in year 2000 and 2016 respectively, as determined by the 2017 FM Broadcasting Audit.

Reports indicate officers from the NCA and armed police officers stormed the two stations on Thursday afternoon to shut them down.

The shut down happened around 2pm on Thursday at a time Radio XYZ in particular had started a live broadcast of a press conference organized and was being addressed by the Council of Elders of the opposition NDC at the party’s headquarters in Accra.

NCA has however explained that it shut down Radio Gold and Radio XYZ because they failed to comply with the ruling of the Electronic Communications Tribunal (ECT) which says that radio stations operating without valid authorizations as determined by the 2017 FM Broadcasting Audit are being shut down with immediate effect as enforcement action in view of the decision of the Electronic Communications Tribunal (ECT).

Addressing the media on Thursday May 9, 2019 evening at the conference room of the Ministry of Information to officially announce its operation for the month of May, the Director-General of NCA disclosed that his outfit has begun an exercise meant to enforce a tribunal ruling against illegal spectrum users.

He added that following 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; Electronic Communications Tribunal (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”, he stated.

He stressed that “to this end, and in line with Regulations 65 (1) of the Electronic Communications Regulations, 2011, L.I. 1991, which states that “a person shall not use a radio frequency without authorization from the Authority” the National Communications Authority is enforcing the shutdown of FM radio stations that are operating without authorization”.

He maintained that as ruled by the ECT, submission of renewal application after expiry of authorisation is not a valid application and therefore shall not be considered by the Authority.

“While companies affected by this shut down may submit fresh applications to the Authority if they so wish, these applications shall go through the required procedure for new FM Broadcasting Authorisation and the outcome will be communicated to the applicants”, he indicated.

He therefore informed the general public that entities are only authorised to use frequencies for a specific duration and a period; thus, Frequencies are national assets and not the properties of users as they are not assigned to users in perpetuity.

“The Authority takes this opportunity to encourage all licence and authorisation holders to ensure compliance with the various terms of their licences and authorisations and as well the relevant regulations”.

He mentioned that this exercise which has begun will continue throughout the country to shut down illegal usage of the spectrum till the end of the month May; revealing that only two defaulters [Radio Gold and Radio XYZ] were found in Accra as the Authority heads to other regions to deal with radio and TV stations operating without valid authorization.