The Writer Ruth Abla Adjorlolo
Once again the need to resource the state broadcaster, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), to carry out its mandate of informing, educating and entertaining Ghanaians in line with statutory principles, has come to the fore with Minister-designate for Information, Mustapha Hamid, hammering on it during his vetting in Parliament.
Mustapha Hamid, who took his turn at the vetting on Thursday, hinted that, if confirmed as minister, his Ministry will collaborate with GBC to enable it raise its own funds through the revamping of the ongoing TV license fee collection.
According to him, this would make GBC financially independent like the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Britain’s state broadcaster. This statement was in response to the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu’s question on how he would improve the quality of pictures on GTV in some parts of the country including Ho and Bole.
Though this issue is no news to many stakeholders who have witnessed the challenging moments that GBC has gone through over the years, it is important to look at it more critically at this time when the proliferation of television and radio stations is regrettably dwarfing the role of GBC.
It has been said over the years that GBC is losing out in competition to the private media in this era of globalization but few are those who know that GBC was established to perform a specific role in national development that puts it in no competition with any other media establishment, whether private or public.
The responsibility imposed on GBC requires adequate funding to enable it stand out and be seen as performing its germane role in this democratic dispensation where the nation requires a neutral state broadcaster to project the cause of the people.
Just recently, one of the political parties accused GBC of partiality in the performance of its duty of informing the public on the activities of the political parties. However, little was considered in assessing the resources at the disposal of the corporation in relation to the enormity of the job at hand.
The likes of BBC and other state broadcasters in the world, are seen to be performing their roles effectively as a result of the resources placed at their disposal. For instance, the BBC has its funding guaranteed by the constitution and insulated from any manipulation or control from any political quarters.
When one juxtaposes BBC’s case to the situation GBC finds itself in, it is not hard to conclude that the latter is nowhere near the former in terms of conducive conditions to perform their duties.
GBC recently introduced the TV License fees to serve as a source funding to guarantee the public broadcaster’s independence and self-reliance but that exercise has not yielded any great result. There are reports that the corporation is spending more to collect the fees than it is receiving, as the Minority Leader stated.
It is, therefore, refreshing to know that Mr. Hamid has some plans on making the revenue-generation efforts of GBC more efficient in rejuvenating the strength of the corporation to make the needed impact in the media circles.
Also, Mr. Mustapha Hamid said he had an interaction with the Director General of GBC, Dr. Kwame Akufo Anoff-Ntow, who revealed that GBC had started a modernization programme in 2007 which is being implemented.
In spite of that, Dr. Kwame Akufo Anoff-Ntow made it clear that, with enough financial support from government, GBC will be able to complete most of its projects to help boost its coverage and operations.
So, the problem of the state broadcaster is clear: lack of resources from government to implement its policies and perform its role.
It is hoped that this promise from the Minister-designate would not be a mirage or an approval-seeking statement to please Parliament but rather a statement of commitment to the national cause through the establishment of an independent and well-resourced state broadcaster that would rub shoulders with the BBC’s and other public broadcasters elsewhere in the world.
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