President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana has halted the planned closure of 64 radio stations across the country by the National Communications Authority (NCA) over various regulatory breaches.

In a public notice issued on June 12, the NCA ordered the 62 stations to suspend broadcasting, citing a directive from the Minister for Communications, Digital Technology and Innovation, Sam Nartey George.

The directive mandated the NCA to enforce sanctions against stations deemed non-compliant.

According to the NCA, the affected stations violated the Electronic Communications Act, 2008 (Act 775), and its accompanying regulations (L.I. 1991) falling into four categories: operating with expired authorisations despite directives to cease operations; continuing to broadcast after notices of revocation for failure to set up within the permitted timeframe; failure to pay full authorisation fees after receiving provisional authorisation; and failure to meet conditions for final authorisation despite partial payment of fees.

However, President Mahama, in a statement issued by his spokesperson, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, emphasised that radio stations served as important avenues for free expression and shutting them down is tantamount to depriving citizens of an important avenue to partake in national discourse.

“President John Dramani Mahama has directed the Ministry for Communications, Digital Technology and Innovation to liaise with the National Communications Authority to immediately restore the broadcasts of the 64 radio stations affected by the regulator’s action.

“The president believes that regulatory compliance must be balanced with the need to uphold and promote media freedom, and that requiring radio stations to shut down while awaiting regularisation of their authorisation could limit the space for expressing such freedoms,” the statement noted.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued on Friday, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) praised the president’s timely intervention.

The GJA warned that shutting down the affected radio stations, regardless of their offences, would have had grave social and economic consequences on the country.

The association also stressed that the move would have undermined media freedom and freedom of expression.

The association encouraged the affected stations to take advantage of the moratorium to regularise their operations.

It also appealed to the NCA to publicly disclose the names of the affected stations to ensure transparency and accountability in the compliance process. (Weekend Trust)