The National Media Commission (NMC) has written to management of Onua FM/TV to halt the inciteful broadcast on its platforms.
The television and radio stations under the Media General group is said to have incited military officers against the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and other Commanders of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) by alleging that the accused persons embezzled monies meant for soldiers on peace keeping operations.
The insinuations, according to the National Media Commission, was made by outspoken broadcast journalist, Captain Smart, without any empirical evidence on the station last week.
In a statement dated Tuesday, November 14, 2023, the media regulation agency gave the management of the Kanda-based media house its last opportunity for internal gatekeeping.
According to NMC, “You may recall that on December 8, 2022, we drew your attention to the use of your station to promote violence against the state and your management’s lack of capacity to address same. This was after we had written to your management on December 2, 2022.It is of concern to us that the behaviour persists after we drew the board’s attention.”
“We are now compelled to come to the board again as a way of giving the company a last opportunity for internal gatekeeping.”
“We ask that you put in measures to stop the dangerous behaviour of the station and improve the station’s capacity for regulatory compliance ,” the NMC instructed.
The management of Onua FM/TV was further given up to November 19, 2023, to retract the insults and apologise to the Chief of Defence Staff and his commanding plus the general public and present evidence of the apology to the NMC
“We also ask the station to withdraw the insults and apologise to the CDS and his commanders. We further ask the station to apologise to the Ghanaian public for the use of vulgar language. We expect you to undertake the above and present evidence of same to us before November 19, 2023 after which date you may hear further from the Commission,” the statement added.
