Management of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) have denied being source of the poor visuals of US President Barack Obama�s address to Ghana�s Parliament on Saturday. Footage of the event was beamed on international media channels such as the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera.
The poor quality of pictures and sound raised concerns among the viewing public. While visuals appeared pale, sound was hardly audible. "You could hardly establish coherence between words," a viewer lamented. Joy news sources said all the television stations picked their feeds from a Metro-TV-powered outdoor broadcasting van. An official from Metro TV had earlier told Joy News GTV failed to pick its feed directly from the outdoor broadcasting van directly in front of the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC).
He insisted the state broadcaster rather sourced its visuals from Metro TV�s channel on DSTV. However, GBC officials have dispel such suggestions and promised to come public with the �true� reasons for the poor footage. Mr Obama spent a night in Ghana with his wife Michelle, who traces her ancestry to Africa � and their two daughters Malia aged 10 and Sasha aged 7. The visit of Mr Obama is significant because it highlighted Ghana as a beacon of democracy and good governance, the White House had said.
The US First Family visited the Cape Coast Castle, a former slave fort. Mr Obama said the cruelty that the slaves suffered shows there is always a door of hope. �And symbolically, to be able to come back with my family, with Michelle and our children, and see the portal through which the diaspora began, but also to be able to come back here in celebration with the people of Ghana of the extraordinary progress that we've made because of the courage of so many, black and white, to abolish slavery and ultimately win civil rights for all people, I think is a source of hope,� the US president said. �It reminds us that as bad as history can be, it's also possible to overcome.�
Media coverage of the events was huge. Over 500 media houses, local and international, applied for accreditation, sources at the Information Ministry said. �Ghana is privileged to be venues for several events that mark the visit of the world�s most powerful man,� a corresponded from an international media house stressed. Mr Obama�s visit is the third by a sitting US president. The first was that of former US President Bill Clinton in 1997.
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