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On Monday 10th August 2015, His Lordship Justice R. B. Batu, sitting in at the High Court, Fast Track Division, Accra partially granted an application for an order of interlocutory injunction seeking to restrain the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) from commencing the collection of TV licence fees till the conclusion of the substantive case to prevent the GBC sharing its Licence fees revenue with any other body. However, His Lordship Batu saw some merit in the substantive case we had put before him and therefore ordered that the GBC and the other defendants, namely the 2nd Defendant, the National Media Commission (NMC) and the 3rd Defendant, the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) to file written submissions within seven days from 10th August, 2015 to provide the legal justification for the sharing formula that had been agreed between them in respect of the TV Licence fees to be collected. In doing so, the learned Judge delivered himself thus in his ruling: ��The Plaintiff need not prove anything further. The onus shifts to the proponent of the formula, the Defendants to show by what lawful authority they propose to share the television licence fees so collected. Such proof need not be by viva voce evidence. Legal arguments will settle the issue and dispose of this case. The Defendants/Respondents will therefore be ordered to file their submission within seven days from today and Plaintiff/Applicant to file his response within seven days after service on him of the Defendants submissions. Registrar of the Court will fix a date for ruling and inform the parties accordingly. The application was directed at the 1st Defendant only. The 2nd and 3rd Defendants chose to oppose the application as well as probably they consider themselves as standing to lose the money they expect in the fees sharing formula�� As I write, twenty-one days have elapsed since His Lordship�s order and there is no evidence that the defendants have filed the submission as ordered. It appears to me that the GBC, having been allowed to resume the collection of licence fees, has taken the view that it has no interest to defend the substantive case of intent to share the revenue with others. Inadvertently, the GBC has gained more than it bargained for and seems to have decided that it�s better to let sleeping dogs lie and enjoy the windfall of 26% added revenue from the TV Licence fees. The GBC�s failure to obey His Lordship Batu�s order was not a surprise to us at all. If anything, it confirmed our gnawing suspicion that the Ghanaian was to be dealt a raw sleight of hand deal when it came to this matter of reintroducing TV licence fees; given the history of its resurrection and hurried implementation. For completeness sake, let�s remind ourselves that the TV licence fee was revised from GHC0.30 to GHC36.00 in December 2014 when LI 2216 was laid before Parliament without debate to increase fees and charges from 65 state institutions. For some curious reason, the public�s attention was diverted to increases in hospital charges and no mention whatsoever was made of the gargantuan increase in TV licence fees Four months later, in April 2015, the Minister of Communications sought to throw dust into our eyes by suggesting in Parliament that Cabinet had approved a law reintroducing the collection of licence fees. �Let me give the assurance that cabinet has already approved, six months ago, the new modalities that we are to adopt in the distribution of whatever is accrued from the TV licensing.� As you know, cabinet approval is not the same as Parliamentary passage of a bill and its assent by the President of Ghana and subsequent gazette. This was the principal reason for my going to court to challenge the sharing formula. The interlocutory injunction was a response to my gut feeling that the GBC would not act by its word once it was given the green light to collect our hard earned and pressed funds. And where do you think I got my gut feeling from? Nowhere else but the Press conference held on the 8th of July 2015, to inform us that the resumption of TV licence fee collection would start on 1 August 2015, less than three weeks away. Incidentally, that was the first time Ghanaians were informed of the huge hike from GHCc0.30 to GHC36.00 which had been buried in LI 2216 passed without debate by Parliament seven months earlier in December 2014. It was the same press conference that announced the sharing formula and more revealingly promised that �a comprehensive sensitisation and publicity campaign has been drawn up and is being rolled out beginning with the launch of the resumption of TV Licence Fee collection. Meaning, we will start charging and explain ourselves to the Ghanaian public and electors later. A veritable case of treating the Ghanaian people with total disregard and utter contempt. Not seeing any comprehensive sensitisation programme rolled out, and believing that the people of Ghana, in whose name and on whose behalf , � industry stakeholders� had imposed licence fees, deserved to know the rhyme & reason , I wrote to the Director-General of the GBC , proposing a public forum to explain the case for and against the reintroduction of licence fees in Ghana. Let me share the exchange with you the people of Ghana My invitation: �Dear Don, I wish to propose that you and I should engage in a PUBLIC DISCUSSION & DEBATE on the issue of TV LICENCE FEES IN GHANA TODAY.I propose that this discussion takes place before an invited audience and is broadcast across the country by the GBC and independent broadcasters My suggestion is premised on the fact you and I have been taking a proxy role in the ongoing public discussion of the issue on various media platforms. Rather than sending text messages into such programmes, I think it will be better to come in from the shadows and take CENTRE STAGE. To me, it is clear that the necessary national conversation that should have preceded the reintroduction of the fee, and indeed was promised, is still imperative, given the rising public interest in the matter. I floated the notion to Chairman General Kwame Sefa Kayi of "KOKROKOO� to moderate such an encounter and he did not hesitate to accept in principle. We may ask a second moderator to join him to remove any doubt about fairness and balance If the idea appeals to you, we can go forward to discuss the modalities for its organization as soon as practicable. My very warmest wishes and best regards. Tarzan� His response �Good morning sir. Thank you for the invitation. I think we have been down this road already and we know what happened. You went to court and we have resumed collection. Since then you have shifted the goal posts to launching a campaign to abolish TV licence in Ghana, with no thought to how our national broadcaster will be reformed to perform the functions that your beloved BBC has done with handsome TV licence fees since the 1950s+commercial revenue +grants from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. I thank you for the invitation but I think Daily Graphic gave us that platform and the rest is history. I wish you a restful weekend.� So there we have it. Despite the firm promise to rollout a comprehensive programme, which programme you would have thought would become more urgent in the face of the campaign to abolish the licence fee, GBC has its money in its pocket and has no intention of engaging the people of Ghana to put the counter argument. That�s it. GBC is Ghana�s public broadcaster, period. The people of Ghana should lump it or leave it. GBC will collect the licence fee and compete with the independent broadcasters, lump it or leave it. Whether Ghanaians watch GBC TV or prefer other alternatives, they will pay a licence fee to keep GBC on air. Lump it or leave it. And you would not believe that all this fossilized thinking is talking place in the midst of a comprehensive and far reaching discussion of a new Broadcasting Bill that will define what public broadcasting is in the 21st century. Before the passage of the law, the �stakeholders�, not the people of Ghana, have decided GBC is Ghana�s public broadcaster; notwithstanding the reality that many independent broadcasters do more public broadcasting and reach a much bigger proportion of the population than GBC. They do it mainly for free, which puts a spanner in the works of those who argue that licence fee should be collected for the exclusive use of GBC. Let me end by quoting yet other reassuring words from the stakeholders: �it would ensure proper accountability, fair and judicious distribution and use of revenues from TV licence for enhanced professionalism and media standard�. GBC�s failure to obey His Lordship Batu�s order is but a taste of things to come. For me I prefer Roland Reagan�s sound advice of �Trust but Verify� to guide us in evolving credible solutions. We the people of Ghana would prefer to be reassured by laws that are relevant to the times we live in than to believe in the assurances of those who are dipping their hands into our pockets. �Should the people of Ghana buy second hand Tigos from the so-called stakeholders; or would they be better off abolishing the old laws and �assurances� and replacing these with ones that are fit for purpose in the times we live in now? I know which way I would go. Join the Petition to abolish the moribund TV licence law today. Visit: www.facebook.com/abolishtvlicencefee