It is ‘absurd’ – Sulemana Braimah slams NCA ‘conditions’ for Radio Gold and others
Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), has slammed the National Communications Authority (NCA) for imposing conditions on 133 radio stations, including Radio Gold and Radio XYZ, before allowing them to begin or restart broadcasting.
Mr Braimah, however, stated on TV3’s News at10 on Tuesday, October 12, that making attendance at a workshop a requirement for obtaining authorization is “absurd.”
“There are conditions that are clearly specified within the laws of the NCA, the Electronic Communications Act and even NCA’s own act clearly specifies under what condition somebody should be granted frequency authorization.
“In fact, it also states that the NCA shall even publish the list of applications it received and those that it grants and those that it refuses. As far as I know, it doesn’t comply.
“It is not surprising that we are saying something like a workshop for frequency and that the condition precedent is that one must attend the workshop before the frequency is granted.
“We need to find out who bears the cost of that workshop. Is it the NCA or the individual applicants for frequency and I think that if the latter is the case, it will even further make the whole thing quite absurd”, Mr Braimah disclosed.
It will be recalled that on Tuesday, October 12, the Authority announced that its board had taken a decision to grant authorisation to the 133 radio stations subject to “terms and conditions” including the attending of a sensitization workshop.
“The workshop shall clarify the legal, regulatory, and technical requirements for the establishment and operation of an FM Radio Broadcasting station,” the NCA said in its statement announcing the board’s decision.
“Provisional authorisations shall be issued to the successful applicants at the end of the workshop and frequencies shall be assigned to the applicants only upon the fulfilment of the conditions of the Provisional Authorisation,” the statement said.
Source: Richard Mensah Adonu | Join our Telegram Group
