Former Board Chairman of the Ghana Airports Company Limited, Paul Adom-Otchere, has called for the establishment of specialised courts to handle media-related cases in Ghana.
Speaking at the “Broadcasting at the Crossroads: Shaping the Future of Ghana’s Electronic Media” forum organised by the Africa Media Bureau, Adom-Otchere noted that despite Ghana’s vibrant judiciary, there are currently no courts dedicated to communication disputes.
“Some of the areas we could explore are that there are no courts set aside to hear communication-related cases. If there are, I don’t know yet,” he said.
He also suggested that decisions by the National Communications Authority (NCA) to sanction or revoke the licences of radio and television stations should be placed under parliamentary oversight.
“When the NCA decides that a radio or TV station has violated regulations and moves to terminate its licence, we could introduce another level of oversight by submitting such cases to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Communication. Parliament can then hold hearings, which would improve the process,” he explained.
Adom-Otchere further encouraged the public to build confidence in state institutions, emphasising that Ghana’s democratic system has been operational for 35 years.
He noted that mistrust in government had hindered progress in the digital migration process, particularly sidelining the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).
“Let us trust governments. We have a democracy that has been working for 35 years. Excessive suspicion led us to ignore GBC in leading the digital migration. We would have completed it by now if we trusted the process,” he stated.
Source: Adomonline
