The National Media Commission (NMC) has affirmed the decision by the board of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), asking its Director General, Dr. Akuffo Annoff-Ntow, to proceed on leave with immediate effect.
The decision last week sparked heated debate over whether or not the board has the capacity to ask Dr Annoff-Ntow to step aside in the first place.
Media rights groups like Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and the Ghana Journalists' Association (GJA) insisted that the board does not have the power to ask the Director-General to proceed on leave, but the NMC set the records straight yesterday, with a press release signed by Nana Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng, its chairman.
According to the statement, "The NMC recognizes the board's authority to determine matters of leave relating to the Director-General. However, the Commission has directed the board to determine the matters before it and to report to the Commission within one month in order to inform NMC's decisions relating to all the issues at stake.
Last week, the GBC Board Chairman, Rev Prof. Emmanuel Addo-Obeng, said Dr. Anoff-Ntow had been asked to proceed on leave because of his poor handling of the Television Licence Fee issue.
Prof. Addo-Obeng, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, said the decision asking Dr. Anoff-Ntow to step aside was taken on Monday, January 15, adding that the regulator - NMC - had been officially notified about the decision.
"We are going to immediately engage NMC to discuss a whole lot of issues affecting GBC and the future of the state broadcaster," the Board Chairman said on Radio Ghana operated by the GBC.
He further explained that one board member and two directors are supposed to steer the affairs of the corporation until the issues are ironed out.
"We have put an interim management committee in place with a board member and two directors of GBC to hold the fort while this consultation goes on," claimed the chairman.
The request by Dr. Anoff-Ntow to the office of the Chief Justice to set up courts that will prosecute defaulters of TV Licence - which was eventually approved - sparked outrage in the country.
In the ensuing heat, the GBC Director-General kept shifting his position over what TV users were supposed to do.
Per Section 1(a) of the TV Licensing Act 1966 (NLCD 89), defaulters were expected to be prosecuted and when found guilty, were supposed to pay a fine or serve an imprisonment term not exceeding one year; but the GBC Board moved swiftly to stop the prosecution aspect under the Act.
The board urged the National Media Commission (NMC) to explore a more sustainable funding module for the GBC.