General News of Tuesday, 3 October 2017

Source: ghanacrusader.com

Minority’s comments on NCA unfortunate; must be trashed – Ursula Owusu-Ekuful

Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful play videoMinister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful

The Minister for Communication Madam Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has rubbished the stance of the minority with regards to the sanctions meted out to 137 radio station across the country for breaching various aspects of the Communications Act.

The Minority in a statement indicated that the National Communication Authority is targeting Pro NDC media houses.

Majority of the affected stations were sanctioned for failing to renew their frequency license upon expiring.

This has angered many media groups including the Ghana Journalist Association and the Independent Broadcasters Association who described the sanctions as hash.

But speaking to the media in reaction to the minorities entrenched position Hon. Ursula Owusu stated that the claims were unfortunate and ought to be withdrawn.

“We all have to be able to respect the laws and its applications dispassionately without fear or favour to all sections of society and I say let the chips fall where they may and there are no sacred cows when it comes to the agencies under the Ministry of Communication,” she stated.



She continued: “For our part, we can only insist on doing our work in accordance with the laws and rules and regulations that mandates the various agencies to operate. And for anyone to even suggest that there may be some motivation other than strict application of our laws I think is most unfortunate and I will chide the ranking member of the committee of communications for his comments that he made in that respect. I think that they were most unfortunate.

“He of all people together with members of the committee should have worked together with the NCA to ensure that the rules and regulations and the laws guiding their operations are fairly enforced. Unless they can point to some selective application of the law and I think they will be very hard pressed to do that, I think that the statement they made was most unfortunate and ought to be withdrawn.”