“GTV Is Lazy And Mentally Imprisoned” – Report

A study of the Ghanaian media landscape by the Media Project of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Africa together with Fesmedia Africa has pronounced a damning verdict on national Broadcaster GTV describing it as “lazy and mentally imprisoned by the past”.

The 2011 African Media Barometre survey which covered the entire media scene in Ghana found that the national broadcaster was starkly biased towards whichever party was in government at any one time.

Chairman of the National Media Commission, Kabral Blay Amihere, who launched the report in Accra, said the national broadcaster necessarily must change its way of doing things following the findings.

“As I read the report I said to myself that GBC is bound to sit up and change its ways”, Mr. Blay said adding that according to the report, GTV bulletins usually follow the hierarchy of government institutions with the President and Vice President leading the news. That is also followed by ministers in the order of their seniority.

“Government activities on average take 70% with the rest dedicated to the opposition and other organizations”.

Ambassador Amihere also read out some of the generally unsavoury observations made by the report on the entire media scene in the country saying Ghana scored badly when it comes to legislation or regulation that seeks to prevent media concentration and monopoly.

He added that according to the report “there is no transparency in the allocation of frequencies in the country making the process unfair”

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