Intention to Set Up Parliament TV Station Misplaced Priority- NMC

The intention by Parliament to set up and run its own television station is a misplaced priority and a misapplication of financial resources, the Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, has said.

He explained that the state through the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) already had the capacity and human resources for doing that.

Rather, a capital injection was required for GBC to establish a dedicated channel that would be devoted to the activities of Parliament which might not necessarily require recruiting more people.

“Some of us feel that how can Parliament set up its broadcasting station when there’s a GBC, which is a public service broadcaster. What we need is capital resources to acquire the equipment and, at least, to remunerate the human resources in a manner that will enable them to provide better service, instead of setting up a new bureaucracy where we are going to recruit people afresh and all that,” the NMC chairman said.

“That will be beneficial to every one of us in the sense that at least, there will be something that we can add to the starvation wage that we are pretending to be paying the staff,” he said.

Inauguration
Mr Boadu-Ayeboafoh said this when he inaugurated the new board for the GBC at its boardroom in Accra on Tuesday [August 13, 2024].

The new board, chaired by Samuel Kojo Intsiaba, has as its members Tanoh Debrah, Francis Dadzie, Peter Djakwah, Ama Serwa N-T and Thomas Broni.

The rest are Adjei Afriyie Nketia, Bishop Raymond Kumah Acquah and the Director-General of GBC, Prof. Amin Alhassan. Present were some members of the NMC, including its Executive Secretary, George Sarpong.

The NMC chairman pointed out that GBC did not have a physical presence in three regions of the country and that the money that Parliament would use to set up its broadcasting station could be used to help GBC extend its services to those three regions, saying “that would serve a better purpose because if Parliament were to set up a broadcasting station, it must ensure that it reaches every corner of the country”.

Mr Boadu-Ayeboafoh insisted that the capital outlay needed to set up a new TV station for Parliament would far exceed what was needed to expand GBC’s presence to all regions.

While commending the staff and management of GBC for the industrial harmony the successive boards had enjoyed since he became NMC chairman,
Mr Boadu-Ayeboafoh pleaded with the workers to handle issues with due process and not go out of the normal routine of resolving problems among themselves.

He charged the new board to bring its competence to bear on the management of GBC so that they would be proud at the end of their tenure.

New Board
For his part, the Director-General of the GBC said the new board had come at a time when the corporation was working hard towards the coverage of Election 2024 and, therefore, assured political parties that GBC would continue to remain professional and seek balance in its reportage of the general election and give equal coverage to all political parties.

The outgoing Board Chairman, Prof. Samuel Debrah, praised his predecessors for the restoration of the corporate pride of GBC, bringing back professionalism, improving physical appearance and promoting a harmonious working environment through constant engagement of management and unionised staff.

Mr Intsiaba gave the assurance that the new board would work with the management to introduce solar energy to power GBC; retool its studios and transmission sites and help with the migration from analogue media to digital.

Source: Graphic Online