Bad TV license must be suspended – Wreko Brobby

The former CEO of the Volta River Authority (VRA) ,Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby has called on the government to suspend the TV License law because it is bad.
Mr. Brobby said in an article that reads: “Although the NMC Chairman announced that “Parliament has reviewed the TV license fees upwards…” all my attempts to sight a copy of the so called amended law, has proved futile so far.”

“There is therefore no justification for carrying out an expensive publicity campaign to launch an illegality. If indeed a revised law has been through Parliament and assented to, I will urge my President to delay the start date of its implementation. Mr. President, SUSPEND THE TV LICENCE NOW, IT IS A BAD LAW.”

Below is the full statement:

On Monday 6 July 2015, the Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC, Ambassador Kabral Blay Amihere, announced that with effect from August, “The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) would from August resume the collection of Television License Fees to ensure that it is better placed financially to fulfil its mandate as a public broadcaster”.

Although the NMC Chairman announced that “Parliament has reviewed the TV license fees upwards…” all my attempts to sight a copy of the so called amended law, has proved futile so far. I am equally bamboozled by the fact that is my brother Kabral. Not my wofaase, medical doctor turned “Aban Kyeame” who made the announcement.

As far as far as I understand, the NMC’s oversight of the state media does not extend to acting, as their funders, or public relations akyeame As it turned out, somebody had decided to abuse Ambassador Kabral’s impeccable credentials to get a truly effective moderation of Ghana’s media by literally making him “sing for his supper” because part of the revived licence fee was to fund the much starved NMC.

The NMC Boss further announced that “stakeholders in the industry have agreed that 72 per cent of the revenue would go to GBC, 15 per cent to GIBA, Four per cent to NMC, four per cent to the Media Development Fund, two per cent to the Film Fund and three per cent to the management of the TV license fees.”

Before the law comes into effect, it is supposedly to be preceded by “comprehensive sensitisation and publicity campaign has been drawn up and is being rolled out, beginning with the launch of the resumption of TV license Fee regime”. How a campaign programme of just three weeks can be called comprehensive or sufficient beats my limited comprehension of ‘comprehensive’ or adequacy.

Well let me kick off my own input into this public campaign by suggesting that the whole exercise be put on ice for now because it is probably illegal in many respects that I will seek to explain and educate Ghanaians on. How I wish this public discussion had taken place during Parliament’s supposed review of the law so that we had gotten it right and avoided this looming illegality and promised confrontation by sections of our people.
 
 
Source: Charles Wereko-Brobby (Dr)/ Chief Policy Analyst, GIPPO/E-mail: tarzan@eyetarzan.org