Pornography, fetishism, and its associated money doubling among other things have dominated a section of the airwaves lately with calls on the MNC to crack the whip.
Speaking on Onua TV’s ‘Maakye’ on Tuesday, the Chairman of the NMC, Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo said despite being the regulator, his outfit is not legally clothed with the powers to do anything to errant media houses or practitioners beyond just advising them.
The Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah had petitioned two state institutions – Bank of Ghana (BoG) and National Media Commission (NMC) – about the activities of “money doublers” on television and urged them to take appropriate action.
“I have written to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and National Media Commission (NMC) to take note of the activities of “money doublers” on TV and act appropriately to tackle it,” the minister wrote on Twitter.
But as it stands now, the said petition is dead on arrival because it was filed to an organization that has no mandate to deal with it.
“What the NMC can do is to advise a media person or a media house to retract and apologize to anyone or institution they have offended and we can’t surcharge you,” 3news.com quoted Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo saying.
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“After our investigations, we can also hand you over to your employers to sanction the person. We can also recommend to the employers that the person’s conduct is unacceptable to the profession but we cannot surcharge you.”
He further explained that until there is an amendment to its current mandate, when a TV station shows such pornographic materials, the NMC can only advise that station to halt it.
The caveat, according to him is that, if someone shows a naked woman on TV for the purpose of medical education to the general public, that is not an offense.