Station goes off-air after Supreme Court ruling

The two radio stations owned by Network Broadcasting Limited have gone off air after the Supreme Court ruling on the three contemnors and the owners of Montie FM on Wednesday (July 27).

Two radio brands are Radio Gold and Montie FM both in Greater Accra. Earlier after the ruling Montie FM was playing songs until they went off air.

Around 2.30pm, on Wednesday July 27, both frequencies, 90.5MHz and 100.1MHz appeared to be jammed. At the time of publication (5.30pm) they were still off air.

A source at Radio Gold also told pulse.com.gh TV Gold was also off air.

The National Communication Authority (NCA) has said it is not responsible for the stations going off-air.

Director General of the Authority William Tevie said “we have not taken them off, we know nothing about it”.

Meanwhile, a source at Radio Gold told Pluse.com.gh they will be back on-air on Friday (July 29). He said “we turned off the station ourselves because of the ruling. Management earlier asked that we play music only but they later ordered that we turn it off completely. They have asked us to come back to work on Friday. So we will be on-air Friday.”

Pluse.com.gh has tried to contact Network Broadcasting Limited management for comment.

Background

Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and Salifu Maase aka ‘Mugabe’ were sentenced to four months imprisonment by the Supreme Court following a case of contempt against the court's judges.

In the court's ruling, the owners of the radio station were also found guilty of contempt and thus fined GHC 60,000. The ruling stipulated that the amount is paid to the court by close of Thursday, 28th July 2016.

In default, the owners would be subjected to a one-month jail term.

Salifu Maase, the host of the show, and Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn panellists on the show who are loyalists of the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC) were all found guilty of issuing death threats to judges of the Supreme Court.

The sitting presided by Justice Sophia Akuffo also found the accused guilty of "scandalising the court, defying and lowering the authority of the court and bringing it into disrepute."

Earlier, one of the panellists blamed his comments in which he and another panellist threatened to kill the judges to a disease called “kpokpogbligbli.”

According to Alistair Nelson, “kpokpogbligbli is an unknown disease that takes over a person’s body and controls what he says and does."

He said this when he appeared before the Supreme Court to explain why he and others should not be “committed to prison for contempt of court, for scandalising the court, defying and lowering the authority of the court, and bringing the authority of the court into disrepute.”

The Supreme Court also played in open court, audiotapes which contained alleged threats issued by two radio pundits despite pleas from the counsel of the alleged contemnors for it not to be played.

The two panellists, Nelson and Gunn told the court they were responsible for the comments and expressed regret.

The host of the said programme, Mugabe, even though admitting that he was liable to the offence, said that he could give reasons for his conduct.

The court in a letter last had earlier asked the owners to explain why they should not be “committed to prison for contempt of court, for scandalising the court, defying and lowering the authority of the court, and bringing the authority of the court into disrepute.”