NDC buying airtime to black out opposition parties - Freddy Blay

The acting National Chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Freddy Blay, has accused the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) of deliberately blacking out minority political parties in the media particularly in the Eastern Region in a bid to keep the vulnerable majority of people in the dark and spread falsehood and propaganda in the region.

According to him, the NDC has succeeded in buying prime time from morning to evening for a week on some major radio stations in the region to spread their propaganda and lies against the NPP and its flag bearer, Nana Akufo-Addo.

Addressing a news conference at Koforidua in the Eastern Region, Mr Blay recalled that on Wednesday 9 October, members of the NPP communication team were denied the opportunity to appear on political talk shows on some radio stations in the region.

He explained that the move by managers of these radio stations to sell their prime time to the NDC to spread falsehood was unacceptable, unethical, and an affront to the very regulations governing their operations.

According to him, the NPP was not against the sale of air time to political parties but was opposed to major radio stations selling all their air time from morning to evening for an entire week to the NDC with the aim of denying other political parties, especially the NPP, the opportunity to let the public know the truth.

Mr Blay indicated that the canon of good journalistic practice demanded fairness, objectivity, neutrality, and honesty, hence the NPP expected the radio stations to exhibit professionalism and work by nationalistic principles rather than financial gains.

Among the radio stations he alleged the NDC had bought air time to prevent members of the NPP from participating in their programmes were Eastern FM, Emak FM, and Kingdom FM, all in Koforidua, and Obuoba FM at Nkawkaw.