Privatise GBC, Daily Graphic – Casely-Hayford

State-owned media organisations such as the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and Daily Graphic should be privatised to prevent political parties using them as propaganda machinery when they come to power, a member of pressure group OccupyGhana, Sydney Casely-Hayford, has advised.

His comment comes on the back of the New Patriotic Party's flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo's refusal to participate in a debate jointly organised by the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) on the argument that the state broadcaster was acting as communication machinery for government.

“If I had the opportunity to influence the future direction of GBC, I will just privatise it…it is like Daily Graphic and a few other papers – they should be privatised,” Mr Casely-Hayford told Umaru Sanda on Citi FM’s The Big Issue, a news analysis programme, on Saturday, December 3.

Nana Akufo-Addo had stated earlier on a different platform that he will restructure GBC to stop governing parties from using it as a propaganda wing, but Mr Casely-Hayford believes privatisation is the best option.

According to the financial analyst, “it is a vicious circle where everybody (every government) comes and misuses the organisation”.

For him, a media organisation that is funded with state money should not be biased towards government or controlled by the party in power.