Ghana’s Legal framework not ready for Digital Migration – NMC

The National Media Commission (NMC) has opened up an entirely new debate about the legal and social implications of Ghana’s digital terrestrial migration.

From next year, all Television stations will switch from analogue to digital transmission.

All TV stations will transmit to a Broadcast Content Distributor with equipment to send this signal through multiplexing to all Television sets within the transmission range.

Consumers who still have analogue Television sets will have to purchase and connect their sets to set top boxes which will receive the digital signals and convert them into analogue signals for the analogue Television sets.

Technical as this may seem; there appears to be several legal and social issues that the NMC insists has not been fully addressed.

Addressing a public stakeholder forum in Kumasi, the Executive Director of NMC Mr. George Sarpong re-echoed the following questions:

‘The National Communications Authority manages the analogue spectrum. So who manages the Digital Space?

If the Broadcast Content Distributor transmits unethical content from a TV station to my Television; Should the Broadcast Content Distributor be also held liable?

If anyone wants to hijack all Televisions in Ghana he has to only walk to the Broadcast Content Distributor to disrupt it. How well is this distributor protected by the state?’

Mr George Sarpong admitted there is a lot of work to create a water tight policy that reflects the public interest and the interest of the media.

He explained, “There are a number of social and political implications that we need to have a policy frame work unhand to deal with such issues. The final policy that we develop for migration in Ghana should have two components. One dealing with the technical standards and two dealing with the content and programming issues. Within that we must make sure that ultimately what we frame does not introduce any vulnerability to the constitutional firewalls of free expression in Ghana.”

Government is currently paying for the cost of the infrastructure even though it is working with a private contractor.

But this has heightened the fears of the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) which is concerned the interest of its members which form a majority of TV stations, might be stifled.

President of GIBA, Andrew Danso Anninkora told Ultimate News’ Ivan Heathcote – Fumador, “The issue we are looking at is knowing the management of the digitization space and which powers they wield to secure the freedom that they have enjoyed.”

“When you are talking about the private participation in media which is in itself a very complex engagement, it is important that we put in some checks that ensures that whatever the private person puts into that kind of business, the person does not lose his investment and that this investment even grows.”

Beyond this, stakeholders expressed concerns about the possibility of exclusion even though Government is looking at helping low income homes using analogue Television sets to acquire set top boxes.

There were also teething speculations of other cost barriers which might cut off some consumers from watching Television. This especially holds for several communities up North and in the hinterlands.

The Communications Minister Ursula Owusu has indicated her ministry is reviewing policy documents to ensure that the migration is done smoothly.

Ghana can only hope that the rough edges are smoothened to avert any pending challenges before the total phase of the migration takes place.

The forum which was held by the NMC in collaboration with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung foundation was attended by key players in the media industry, the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), Heads of Academia specifically Universities and other Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).

By: Ghana/Ultimatefmonline.com/106.9FM/Ivan Heathcote-Fumador

The post Ghana’s Legal framework not ready for Digital Migration – NMC appeared first on Ultimate FM.

The National Media Commission (NMC) has opened up an entirely new debate about the legal and social implications of Ghana’s digital terrestrial migration. From next year, all Television stations will switch from analogue to digital transmission. All TV stations will transmit to a Broadcast Content Distributor with equipment to send this signal through multiplexing to […]

The post Ghana’s Legal framework not ready for Digital Migration – NMC appeared first on Ultimate FM.

Read Full Story