NMC Bares Teeth Over Captain Smart’s Utterances

The National Media Commission (NMC) has issued what it characterized as a final caution to the Board of Directors of Onua TV, a subsidiary of Media General Limited over some utterances of show host Blessed Godsbrain Smart popularly known as Captain Smart.

The caution letter addressed to the Board of the media organization by the General Secretary of the Commission, George Sarpong on Tuesday focused on an “inciteful” broadcast by the host last week.

He said the utterances were directed at the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) and other Commanders of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF).

“Last week, your station carried an inciteful broadcast in which Captain Smart directly insulted the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) and other Commanders of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) as ‘beasts’. He claimed the officers embezzled monies meant for soldiers on peacekeeping operations but offered no evidence to back his claims.”

According to the Commission, the statements by the host were “dangerous” and “unprofessional”.

It thus directed the station to render an unqualified apology to the persons involved as well as the Ghanaian populace by November 19.

“We ask that you put in measures to stop the dangerous behaviour of the station and improve the station’s capacity for regulatory compliance. We also ask the station to withdraw the insults and apologise to the CDS and his commanders. We further ask the station to apologise to the Ghanaian public for the use of vulgar language.”

According to the letter sighted by opemsuo.com, the Commission issued a similar caution to the Board in December last year concerning such utterances.

“You may recall that on December 8, 2022, we drew your attention to the use of your station to promote violence against the state and your management’s lack of capacity to address the same. This was after we had written to your management on December 2, 2022.

“It is of concern to us that the behaviour persists after we drew the board’s attention. We are now compelled to come to the board again as a way of giving the company a last opportunity for internal gatekeeping.”