Kennedy Agyapong and Sam George in near-fight

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong has clashed with Ningo Prampram MP, Sam George.

The two loudmouth MPs clashed when they met at the Parliamentary select committeee on Communications to debate the partnership with Chinese-owned StarTimes which will distribute 300 village satellite TVs nationwide.

According to reports, there was a near brawl between Kennedy Agyapong and Sam George but it took the timely intervention of other members of the Committee who were at the meeting to separate.

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Kennedy Agyapong who doubles as the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Communications was said to have used some words, which Sam George felt was insulting and demanded that, the chairman should withdraw the words and apologise which generated in a heated argument which nearly got physical to the extent that some members at meeting had to restrain the two, to avoid any further clashes.

Background

Last week, the Ministry of Communications announced that it has a partnership with Chinese-owned StarTimes to distribute 300 village satellite TVs nationwide.

The government said the partnership is geared towards bridging the digital divide between the rural and urban areas.

The China-backed digital broadcaster in Africa, StarTimes was presented to the Ghana government as a condition for obtaining a loan from the Chinese Eximbank.

However, the deal has been protested by a section of Ghanaians who believe China is only planning to take over Ghana's digital space.

The Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) said "if StarTimes is allowed to control both Ghana’s only digital television infrastructure and the satellite space in the name of digital migration, Ghana would have virtually submitted its broadcast space to Chinese control and content."

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But the Communications Minister disagreed, insisting GIBA has no right to dictate to government on what it should do.

"Is the independent Broadcasters Association telling us that they should dictate the pace, content of the DTT migration project? I don’t think so and I think that they also see themselves as key stakeholders of the project but not as dictators of the entire project because they are not financing the project and they can’t sit there and dictate what government does in this process. And I will be a little hesitant to think that that is the stance they have taken that because they have said ‘A’, it should be ‘A’ and it shouldn’t be any other process," Ursula Owusu-Ekuful remarked.