Shutting down radio stations unnecessary; call NCA to order – Mahama to Nana Addo

Former President,  John Dramani Mahama wants President Nana Akufo-Addo to intervene in what he terms as the unnecessary closure of some of the country’s radio stations by the National Communications Authority (NCA).

Mr. Mahama who believes the NCA’s actions are politically motivated said the President’s intervention will prove he is a human rights advocate.

“It is not fair and so I want to appeal to Nana Addo, he says he is a human right advocate. The closure of these stations is totally unnecessary. It is obvious to everyone that there is some politics in there. The President is the Chief Executive Officer of the country. He can call the NCA to order.”

“The NCA ‘s actions are clearly political. The timing of the closure of Radio Gold and XYZ should tell you. It was a time when both stations were carrying out an NDC press conference and everybody knows the inclination of those two stations. The decision to close other stations is an afterthought by NDC. NCA’s objective is to build the communications and media industry and you don’t build it by going regularly to close down radio stations. It is not fair,” he said.

The NCA has come under attack for closing about seven radio stations over license-related issues.

Majority of the closed stations are pro-opposition radio stations.

Although the NCA has said that exercise will be conducted throughout the country to ensure that all FM stations in the country meet the licensing rules, it has been accused of acting in bad faith.

Some of the stations claim that they had been making efforts to renew their licenses but the NCA failed to attend to them.

Minority to join demo against shut down of radio stations

The Minority in Parliament has backed the Free Media Vanguards’ protest of the closure of some radio stations in the country by the National Communications Authority (NCA).

The group plans to march in protest on Tuesday over what it described as the NCA’s abuse of its powers and suppression of press freedom.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Minority in Parliament pledges its full support for Tuesday’s March and announces its decision to participate in this all-important march which seeks to confront and defeat the cowardly forces of oppression and tyranny,” the Minority said in a statement.

Radio Gold, Radio XYZ shutdown not politically motivated – Oppong Nkrumah

The Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has denied claims that the shutdown of the two pro-opposition radio stations, Radio XYZ and Radio Gold was out of political vendetta.

He said the exercise cuts across all networks operating without the right authorization.

“I am very sure some persons would speculate that this exercise appears to be an action against the two radio stations that may appear to be unaligned to the current administration. But the brief I have is that, this exercise cuts across various user of spectrums who have been cautioned that they had been operating without authorization for some years now. And this exercise has been going on for a year now,” he said.