NMC has not been effective for the past 30 years - Prof Agyeman-Duah

Prof Agyeman-Duah says NMC has failed to perform its mandate

Successive governments have failed to empower NMC – Prof Agyeman-Duah

Ghana drops 30 places in 2022 World Press Freedom Index

Former United Nations (UN) Senior Advisor, Prof Baffour Agyeman-Duah, has bemoaned the inability of the National Media Commission (NMC) to perform its mandate.

According to Prof Agyeman-Duah, the NMC, which was established nearly 30 years ago, has not been able to effectively establish strong standards for Ghana's media as it is supposed to, 3newsroom.com reports.

He indicated that the commission might not be performing its role effectively because successive governments have failed to empower it.

"For the past 30 years, the media commission has not been effective, or it's not empowered to roll out its mandate," he said.

The former UN senior advisor, therefore, called for the empowerment of the commission so that it can effectively perform its mandate of sanitising the media space in Ghana and protecting the interest of media personnel and organisations.

The NMC was set up on July 7, 1993, as part of the National Media Commission Act 1993 in accordance with provisions of Chapter 12 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

The mandate of the commission is to ensure the establishment and maintenance of the highest journalistic standards in the mass media of Ghana. The commission is also to investigate, mediate and settle complaints made against or by media personnel or media organisations.

Meanwhile, Ghana has been ranked 60th out of 180 countries in the 2022 World Press Freedom index. This shows that Ghana has dropped 30 places in the world from its previous 30th position, and it also fell by six places from its previous third position in Africa.

The report indicated that for journalists to protect their jobs and security, they mostly resort to self-censorship, as the government is intolerant of criticism.

Stakeholders in the media landscape in Ghana have described the performance as the worst in the last 17 years and have attributed the poor performance to the murder of Ahmed Hussein-Suale and the criminalisation of speech which has led to recent arrests of some media personalities in the country.

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