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GIBA heads to court over Criminal Libel law

Akwasi Agyeman said the new law advocated by the NMC is a subtle means of sneaking back into the country’s statutes

 

The Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) says it will challenge a new Legislative Instrument (L.I. 2224) meant to regulate media content at the Supreme Court.

Parts of the LI states that, "an operator shall not convey or permit to be carried, content on a public electronic communications service or a broadcasting service without obtaining a content authorization from the Commission [National Media Commission]."

It also states that failure to obtain permission attracts "a fine not less than five thousand units or a term of imprisonment of not less than two years and not more than five years or to both the fine and term of imprisonment."

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Speaking to Accra-based Joy FM on Tuesday morning, President of GIBA, Akwasi Agyeman said, "To go in here now and say if anybody contravenes a particular sub-regulation of the L.I. and would be imprisoned or fined, I think you probably will be going too far."

He said some clauses of the L.I which sanction imprisonment as punishment for media houses that failed abide the law, contravene the 1992 Constitution.

He noted that, the new law advocated by the NMC is a subtle means of sneaking back into the country’s statutes, through the back door, the repealed criminal libel law.

"This law is a back-door criminal libel law”, that is how we see it," he added.

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