* The True Story Behind An Arm-Twisting & Blackmailing Media Baron*

The Herald’s behind the scene investigations into the ownership of Multimedia Group of Companies and other related matters sparked off by government’s directive to state institutions to cut links with radio stations owned by the Group have yielded some interesting revelations.

Multimedia Group of Companies, owners of Joy FM, Asempa FM, Adom FM, Hitz FM, Luv FM and Nhyira FM is partly owned by the Government of Ghana.

Insiders say, the people of Ghana, has whopping 10 percent shares in Multimedia Group of Companies. However, managers of the radio stations have not accounted for the state’s interest in the media organization.

An attempt to get the Multimedia Group to account for the 10 percent share was met with a slap in the face from the group. Its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Kwesi Twum, is said to have refused to respond to a letter from the government on the matter.

A similar letter went to Optimum Media Prime (OMP), owners of Metro TV, in which Ghana Television (GTV) has shares, to render an account for their operations since Metro TV’s inception. This was responded to by Metro TV.

Before the letters were written, an important personality in the Multimedia Group had sneaked into the Osu-Castle to meet some top government officials of President John Mills (names withheld) before whom he put a mind-blowing proposal.

He told the government officials that they should “engage my boys because i cannot guarantee how unruly they could be to the government.”

Finding this as out of place, the Castle officials were said to have told the Multimedia man to go as government considered the proposal put before them.

“How could they put Joy FM journalists on government’s payroll”, a reliable source close to the Castle told ‘The Herald’.

Subsequently, the National Media Commission is said to have drawn the government’s attention to the state’s interests in the media organizations, the Multimedia Group and Metro TV— and dividends paid to the state for their operations since their inception.

However, it was only Mr. Talal Fatal the CEO of OMP, who replied, but showed an unimpressive statement of accounts for the period in contention.

Mr. Talal Fatal is said to have attributed the poor financial standing of Metro TV to the lack of some facilities that could have enhanced their operations and productivity.

GTV was supposed to have provided these facilities, but it had been unable to provided them, The Herald gathered. This paper gathered that Mr. Kwesi Twum, , was also written to by the government to account for his stewardship of Multimedia Group of Companies’.

However, Mr. Twum is yet to provide a reply to the letter. Meanwhile, six persons gave various instances of deliberate machinations, mispresentations, distortions and twisting of facts by reporters and presenters of both “Joy FM” and “Adom FM”, owned by the Multimedia Group.

The personalities include Madam Ama Benyiwa Doe, Fiifi Kwetey, Felix Ofosu Kwekye, Kobby Acheampong, David Annan, Nii Amasa Namorle and Kwadwo Twum-Boafo. They spoke on the Accra-based Radio Gold.

It is unclear now whether these deliberate machinations, mispresentations, distortions and twisting of facts by reporters and presenters are part of the unruly behaviours which the Multimedia personality talked about when he met with the Castle officials.

Fiifi Kwetey, who is a Deputy Minister of Finance, cited how Joy FM refused him coverage during his famous “Setting the Records Straight Series” when the NDC was in the opposition because it was going against the NPP government.

He said the radio station only covered the series on two occasions.

Mr. Kwetey also mentioned how he was kicked out from the socio-political programme “Crossfire” on Joy FM, again because the NPP government was intolerant to his exposé that the NPP’s much-touted democratic credential was a sham. The programme was killed by Joy FM.

Nii Amasah Namoale, who is the Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture on his part, mentioned how an interview he granted a reporter of the Joy FM in the Central Region was deliberately twisted, making him look really stupid in the eyes of those who listened to the interview.

Deputy Interior Minister, Kobby Acheampong cited how Joy FM erroneously reported that President Mills’ security details were engaged in a fierce fight at the Kotoka International Airport, when the president returned from his trip to America.

It turned out that the fight was rather between an unruly private security guard and an operative of the National Security.

Mr. Acheampong again mentioned how Adakabre Frimpong Manso of “Adom FM”, in Tema, had also falsely claimed that he (Kobby) had flouted a directive of President Mills not to travel outside Ghana, by going to Togo.

The Deputy Interior Minister said when the presenter’s attention was drawn to the fact that he had not travelled and that he was in his office, Adakabre refused to retract his claim.

Lawyer David Anann mentioned how Kwaku Baako of the New Crusading Guide and Kweku Sekyi-Addo asked that he be taken off “Joy FM’s” Saturday Newsfile programme, and this was done.

“This is a word of caution to other radio stations like Citi FM, Peace FM, Hot FM, among others that it can happen to them,” lawyer Annan warned.

Lawyer Annan stated that Joy FM in particular has been at the forefront to run the government down with its weekend news analysis programme, News File.

He alleged that the station has a policy to bar him from appearing on the show and does not understand why the editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide, Kweku Baako Jnr, whom he described as “an NPP apologist”, is a regular panelist.

“I’m a personal victim of “Joy FM”. Kweku Baako is a constant panelist on News File, an NPP apologist. Kweku Sakyi Addo [a former host of the show] also objected to my presence on News File… Stan Dogbe [a former producer and now a presidential aide] is my witness. I know quite clearly what they do,” he claimed.

Lawyer Annan stated that government does not stand to lose with its stance because “there are 42 radio stations in Accra alone and it is only three who have been denied active access” to government.

He added: “If they can get information elsewhere fine, we’re not stopping them and these happenings of the apparatchiks and apologists of the NPP will not fly. If they think we are making a mistake then fine and if it works to their advantage fine.”

He condemned the BBC’s interview with Kojo Asante of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) on the issue, describing it as “conflict of interest” since the British broadcaster is a partner station of Joy FM whiles the policy think-tank has been blacklisted by the NDC.

“The CDD is an appendage of the NPP so we don’t deal with them. The BBC itself operates on ‘Joy’ of what kind of conflict of interest, blatant and shameless conflict of interest is this. There is no compulsion on government to deal with Multimedia and how they get their information is up to them,” he pointed out.

The Central Regional Minister and onetime Member of Parliament for Gomoa West, Ama Benyiwa Doe, lamented how Joy FM reporters chased her and engaged in negative reportages against her leading to her, defeat at the parliamentary elections.

A member of the government’s communication team, Felix Ofosu Kwekye, on his part cited various instances where politically tainted opinions were solicited from card-brandishing members of the opposition NPP under the guise of an independent opinion.

He mentioned lawyers Kwame Akufo, Ace Annan Ankomah and a Political Science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Mr. Kwesi Amakye as people who had been given the cloak of independent opinion even though they are politically tainted in favor of the NPP.

Kwadwo Twum Boafo, who serves at the Chief Executive of the Ghana Free Zones Board, cited the false story of Amina Mohammed’s false Yontong bus mass rape, which was widely pushed by “Adom FM”,