The President of the Salt and Light Ministries, Rev Joyce Aryee, has suggested the merging of the National Media Commission (NMC) and the National Communications Authority (NCA).
She said subsuming the role of the NCA under the NMC would make for the proper regulation and monitoring of television and radio stations that had been granted licences and frequencies to operate.
�Ghana must rethink and correct the anomaly in the allocation and regulation of frequencies. Regulation must go with the allocation of frequencies,� she stated.
Rev Aryee was delivering the keynote address as the guest of honour at a roundtable discussion organised by the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), in collaboration with Star-Ghana, on �Media Ethics and Transparency in Frequency Allocation� .
Transparency
Urging the promotion of excellence as opposed to mediocrity, she said �we must make the transparency in granting frequencies and licences the order of the day�.
She noted that �wrong things get done when there is no transparency. When there is no transparency there is always the temptation to do what is wrong because nobody is watching.�
Rev. Aryee called for an end to cronyism in the allocation of frequencies and for the media to be used to develop the nation.
�People in the NCA must see themselves as part of the media fraternity and become ethical,� she advised.
Admitting that pluralism and liberalisation of the airwaves came with some undesirables, she said that situation informed the need for standards.
Pluralism must not cause us to do things in such a way that some people will hold us to a tyrannical position, she said.
Ethical Behaviour and Excellence
Rev Aryee said ethical behaviour was critical in the media because of the power the media wielded, adding that unfettered power resulted in tyranny.
�The media owes it to itself, the profession and the people it serves, to be ethical. Media content needs to be undergirded with ethics,� she stated.
Rev Aryee noted that excellence of the media laid in critical thinking about issues and urged journalists to pursue excellence or fade into oblivion.
�Our democracy will become more vibrant with an informed public so that politicians can no longer buy votes,� she said.
Quoting from the American journalists� code of ethics, Dr Aryee outlined four principles to be followed by the Ghanaian media � �Seek truth and report it, minimise harm, act independently and be accountable and transparent.�
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