The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) wishes to express deep concern about disturbing developments on Ghana’s broadcast media landscape and urges the government and all stakeholders including the National Media Commission to start a dialogue as soon as practicable to build consensus quickly on the passage of a broadcasting law.

The GJA in a statement said: “Ghana needs to pass that law without any further delay in conformity with best practice, to among other things alert operators of radio and television stations to their gate-keeping responsibility, requiring that they do not permit the use of abusive, threatening, hate speech or otherwise provocative language on the airwaves.”

“A broadcasting law would provide Ghana with the legal framework to regulate the broadcast industry through the demand for operators of radio and television stations to adhere to stringent regulations in addition to ethics,” GJA president, Ransford Tetteh said in the statement.

The statement said the broadcasting law would place the onus on radio and television stations to carry out their gate-keeping role more diligently and thereby protect democracy and promote peace, especially, in our political discourse which is essential in an election year.

It said: “A broadcast legislation would infuse greater responsibility in terms of civility, decorum and circumspection in our broadcast industry and strengthen the hands of the National Media Commission to both regulate and monitor the content of the industry and apply appropriate sanctions.

“The gate-keeping role of the media has become very critical during the period of the preparations towards election 2012. There is therefore the need to balance the freedom and independence of the media with the high obligation of social responsibility.

“The GJA gives every encouragement to the media to promote free expression and healthy political discourse. But we urge journalists never to relax in their gate-keeping role by ensuring that ethnic and divisive utterances, similar to the one recently made on radio by the Assin North Member of Parliament Kennedy Agyepong, which has contributed to heightening political tension are not allowed on our airwaves.”**