NMC must do better in regulating media – Sulemana Braimah

The Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Mr Sulemana Braimah has urged the National Media Commission (NMC) to do more in regulating the media in Ghana.

Mr Braimah made the call during his presentation at the GIJ 2021 webinar themed; “Assessing the Performance of the Media during the 2020 Elections” on Friday, April 9, 2021.

His call was in response to questions posed him on the mandate, and effectiveness of the work of the NMC in Ghana.

According to Mr Sulemana Braimah, the NMC is “doing their best to regulate the media but, their best is not enough to address the many ethical challenges confronting the media space.”

He said the Commission “is also understaffed, and cannot work effectively as we all want. If you look at the current Board of the NMC, only a few people are full-time workers on the board. For instance, the General Secretary, the Chairman and a few others are the only ones who work there on daily basis. The rest also have other things doing elsewhere. That can make their work very difficult.”

Mr Braimah also outlined financial problems as one of the major challenges affecting the effectiveness of the NMC.

He however urged the commission to put more effort into their work. His position was that; “at least government gives them something little to work with. So they must justify why the government or other stakeholders need to do more investment in them.”

The 2021 Webinar Public Lecture was organized by the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Development of the Ghana Institute of Journalism.

This maiden edition focused on the theme: “Assessing the Performance of the Media during the 2020 Election”.

Speakers for the day were Mr Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), and Mr Bernard Koku Avle, General Manager of Citi FM/TV.

The next session comes off on Monday, 12th April 2021 at 12 noon and 2:00 pm.

The speakers will be Mr Zakariah Tanko Musah and Dr Lawrencia Agyepong respectively, all the lecturers of the Ghana Institute of Journalism.Source: Citifmonline