The Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has refuted allegations that there is a political motivation behind the shutdown of two pro-opposition radio stations, Radios XYZ and Gold.
The two stations were shut down on Thursday, May 9, 2019, at a time an NDC press conference addressed by the Council of Elders at the party headquarters in Accra was being transmitted live on XYZ.
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Reacting to the shutdown in an interview on Accra-based radio, Citi FM, Mr Oppong Nkrumah said the shutdown was an on-going nationwide exercise that was not targeted at specific media houses.
“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 users of spectrums who have been cautioned that they had been operating without authorization for some years now,” he said.
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Meanwhile, the Programmes Manager for Radio Gold, Richard Agyepong, has described the shutdown action as “unacceptable”, disagreeing with NCA’s reason for the shutdown.
The NCA in a press statement said: “Radio stations
operating without valid authorisations as determined by the 2017 FM
Broadcasting Audit are being shut down with immediate effect as an enforcement
action in view of the decision of the Electronic Communications Tribunal.”
The NCA’s 2017 audit named Radio XYZ and Radio Gold among the many FM stations that were operating against its regulations.
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Radio XYZ’s license was said to have expired on 8th May 2016 and that of Radio Gold on 6th September 2000.
In the report, both Radio XYZ and Radio Gold were fined GHs 4,090,000 and GHs 61,330,000 respectively.
Staions to be affected in the clampdown are required to submit a fresh application to get the authorization to be able to operate their FM stations again.
Source: Adomonline.com/Gertrude Otchere