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The Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) hasgiven
indications that it is prepared to resort to the Supreme Court if the
National Communications Authority (NCA) refuses to stop its new
re-classification policy.
The policy is aimed at reducing the approved coverage area of radio
stations operating in the country from 100 kilometre radius to 45
kilometre.
The NCA has explained thatre-classification of the coverage will help
curb the frequent interferences of some radio stations' transmissions
into others.
The Authority has thus suspended temporarily, the issuance of
frequencies to prospective applicants.
The Vice President of GIBA, Samuel Attah-Mensah on Eyewitness News
however said the new policy is unfair and will ultimately collapse the
operations of radio stations.
He pointed out that members of GIBA would have had no qualms with the
new policy if "at the time of being given the frequency, you let it
known to me that I have only 45 kilometre radius upon which I will
build my business so what it means is that we would have to let people
go home because if I am going to reduce my coverage, it means I am
going to reduce my market share, my revenue and the number of people I
employ."
"We are prepared to go as far as the Supreme Court," he said.
He disclosed that the NCA in 2012 proposed that it was going to
undertake the reclassification exercise and subsequently opened
discussions where they made certain proposal on the policy but
according to him, the authority did not give GIBA any feedback and
rather surprised them with a unilateral implementation.
"Then we get to 2015 and we are told that the policy has begun and
they've started implementing the policy so when you go for renewal of
your licence, you are given 45 kilometres of radius footprint to
operate within," he said.
GIBA's Vice President revealed that both the executives of the
Association and officials from GIBA have visited six regions so far
and the reaction to the new policy is that of "shock."
GIBA is thus calling on the President and the Communication Minister
to intervene "because we think that it is unfair."
He complained saying, "you presenta business plan based on which you
are issued a licence to operate and each license is given the radius
within which it should operate so you build your business based on
this mandate. Now halfway through,you are told that they have
decidedand some of the reasons they have given for reducing our
footprint – reasons like there is so much demand for frequencies – I
mean, frequency is not a simple commodity. There is so much demand for
frequencies for telecom operations but do you just wake up and give
people because they want to build mobile phone networks?"
Mr. Attah-Mensah argued that the new policy does not make economic
sense because "if you are listening to Peace FM for instance, the
moment you get to Kasoa in theCentral Region, the active signals of
Peace FM will start vanishing; Joy FM, Citi FM, Adom FM."
Credit: Citifmonline.com
