We will deal with illicit comments in the media space - NMC warns

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July 11, 2016 2:20 PM

According to him the commission is also committed to ensure that the media does not contribute to electoral violence. This follows the recent inflammatory comments by two radio panelists on Accra-based Montie FM

The National Media Commission (NMC) has indicated its commitment in developing a long-term plan to deal with the rampant use of illicit language in the media space.

Chairman of the Commission, Kwasi Gyan Apenteng, revealed this to journalists on Monday July 11,2016.

Related:Media Standards

The two panelists are said to have threatened to eliminate the judges of the Supreme Court if they did not handle the lawsuit on the credibility of the voters’ register properly.

“By and large, the media have done well over the years in performing election-related assignments to contribute to our democracy. However, as we have seen, in the course of political campaigns, some people resort to the use of inflammatory, distasteful and provocative language and this situation has understandably caused alarm among the population. The recent offensive effusion by some radio panelists underscores the alarm and the need for the nation to ensure that the abuse of our airwaves does not lead to violence before during and after the elections. We are all aware of the role of the media in the election related violence in some countries and the Rwandan genocide of 1994 among many such tragedies”, he said

Read also:GIBA vrs NMC

Mr. Apenteng warned that the commission will deal with persons who use illicit language on the media space and was quick to outlined the commission’s long-term plan to sanitise the media space.

“There have been many calls on the NMC to do something about the deteriorating standards of political communication in the media and we really appreciate why this is so. However, we would like to assure Ghanaians that while we are able to deal with these eruptions as they occur, we have deployed and continue to use strategies that in the long-term will rid of us of such abuses of our media resources especially broadcasting. The NMC has developed a number of documents that contain guidelines for many media activities. These include the guidelines on political journalism, which directly addresses many of the violations in question. Other guidelines in the series are; guidelines for political advertising, guidelines for local language broadcasting, guidelines on fair and equitable coverage of all parties by the state owned media, print media guidelines and others. We urge all practitioners to incorporate these guidelines in their everyday work.” he added.

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