<<Print>>

Editor of the Daily Post newspaper, Mike Dokosi, is accusing Accra-based commercial radio station, Joy FM, of being a mouthpiece of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). His claim is premised on the fact that the station bent the rules of the house by allowing Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, Executive Director of Danquah Institute to waltz back into their studios without rendering an apology to the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Omane Boamah, after describing him as �stupid�. Saturday, September 24th edition of Joy FM�s news analysis programme, Newsfile, turned dramatic when the Executive Director of Danquah Institute, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko lost his cool referring to a co-panelist�s remarks as smacking of �stupidity�. The civil discussion on the celebration of the country's Founder�s Day led to the shocking outburst after Dr Omane Boamah described Dr. J.B. Danquah, a founding father of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as a �CIA agent�. As per the rules of the programme, anyone who makes such comments would have to apologise or walk off the programme, Gabby decided not to apologise and chose to walk out of the studio. He later returned to apologise to listeners and viewers instead of the Deputy Minister. Speaking to the issue in an interview with Alhassan Suhuyini on Radio Gold, the Daily Post newspaper Editor accused Joy FM of being anti-NDC, stressing that the rules should have been followed to the letter. �Joy FM is playing PR (Public Relations) for the NPP� If they were true to their words they would not have allowed Gabby back on set... They simply are doing PR for the NPP�they also put a story on their website against the NDC when complaints started coming they took the story off and have decided not to put Daily Post stories on their website�They later said Gabby apologized to Omane Boamah and that is not true he apologized to the viewers and listeners but not Omane Boamah�� Dokosi asserted. But in a sharp rebuttal, host of Newsfile on JoyFM, Samson Ladi Ayenini dismissed the assertion that Multimedia and for that matter Joy FM favours the NPP, adding that the station always try to be objective as possible in all their analysis of issues.