Govt invites industry players for inputs on online content regulation – Oppong Nkrumah

Information Minister, Kojo Opong-Nkrumah, has disclosed that while the executive continues to actively engage on a broadcasting bill, there is also some focus on how to regulate online content.

He says, on that issue, the executive is looking to the active input of industry players in the online ecosystem to generate perspectives on how to proceed.

“It is one of the areas that we have thrown to the industry players to give us their perspective,” Oppong-Nkrumah told Joy News’ Emefa Apawu when he appeared on ‘The Probe’ show which aired Sunday evening, April 18, 2021.

The minister stressed that among the issues being considered was whether content barred from mainstream media – radio and television – should also be barred from online platforms like YouTube.

Even though he did not mention specific industry players that the government hoped to engage, he stressed the executive’s resolve to continually engage in broad-based consultations on the broadcasting bill as it has on many other pieces of legislation that has been proposed to parliament.

Stakeholders in the broadcasting industry late last week agreed to set up a joint stakeholder group under the National Media Commission (NMC) to examine reports of unethical content.

The Committee said it will subsequently invoke the powers of the National Communication Authority (NCA) to take punitive action against offending broadcasters.

A communiqué issued by the Consultative Forum and read by the Information Minister at a media briefing in Accra on Sunday said to achieve the recommendations reached at the meeting last Friday, stakeholders will sign a Memorandum of Co-operation within 14 days of the Meeting to formalize arrangements for action.

The communiqué said the setting up of the joint Stakeholder Committee was in accordance with Section 10 of the NMC Act, 1993 (Act 449) and members will be drawn from the NMC, NCA, GJA, Bank of Ghana, the National Security Secretariat, Ghana Independent Broadcasting Association, and Office of the Attorney-General.

The work of the Committee is to among other things, monitor the broadcasting landscape to identify and examine complaints of unethical broadcast content.