The constitution of Ghana makes provision for the state owned media to provide equal access to all political parties to make their programmes and policies known to the Ghanaian electorate. This function assigned to the state media house, is one that is expected of a public service broadcaster. Unfortunately, Ghana does not have a public service broadcaster. Recently, the government of Ghana, as part of its public sector reform decided to take the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) (the only state owned electronic media house) off government subvention. This on the face of it would mean that GBC would have to be run as a commercial broadcaster. This decision raised a lot of debate on the future of public service broadcasting in Ghana.
The Ghana Journalist Association in an effort to provide some direction on how government as a maker and implementer of policy should proceed on the issue of public service broadcasting commissioned a study after which the findings were put before Ghanaians in a nationwide consultation. After nationwide consultations, a report was issued by the stakeholders (media practitioners, government officials and civil society). This was to serve as an advocacy tool. The report emphasised the fact that effective public service broadcasting was crucial for the consolidation of democratic culture in Ghana. The report focused on the GBC and made recommendations about funding, human resource development and programme content for the GBC.
The report was presented to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Communication, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, the National Media Commission and the Ministry of Information and National Orientation in their various offices between the 5th and the 10th of March, 2008.
All stakeholders appreciated the need for a public service broadcaster for Ghana and welcomed the work of the GJA and agreed that the document presented had the huge potential of assisting in the formulation a public service broadcasting policy for Ghana.
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