Source/Credit: Daily Graphic | Modern Ghana
By Timothy Gobah | October 13, 2010
The government has recommended far-reaching changes to the constitutional provisions which deal with the appointment of members of the National Media Commission (NMC) and the appointment of board members, as well as editors, of state media organisations.
The proposals are contained in a three-page document to the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) on the organisation of the NMC “to make it more responsive to the challenges of the media industry”.
They relate to Article 166 of the 1992 Constitution, which provides the framework for the establishment and operation of the NMC.
On the membership of the NMC, the government recommended that certain categories of persons should be disqualified from becoming members.
They are persons who are founder members of a political party or persons who are leaders or members of the executive of a political party or hold any office in a political party or are registered members of a political party or activists of a political party.
The rest are persons who have ever been appointed to occupy any position or office in a political party or are found to be partisan.
On the election of the Chairman of the NMC, the government proposed that the Commission should, at its first meeting, nominate three persons from among its membership to be considered for the position of Chairman of the Commission for the President to appoint one of them as Chairman.
Article 166 (2) of the Constitution enjoins the NMC to appoint its own chairman, but the government holds the view that the current provision does not provide any guide to the Commission in such an elective process.
With regard to the appointment of board members of state-owned media organisations, the government recommended that the commission should be made to appoint the chairman and other members of the governing bodies of state-owned media, in consultation with the President.
On the criteria for the appointment of Editors, as provided for in Article 169 of the Constitution, the government proposed that editors of the state-owned media should be appointed by the governing bodies of the respective corporations, in consultation with the Public Services Commission.
The current provision provides no criteria to guide the governing bodies in the appointment process of the editors.
The government further proposed that 'a person who is a founding member of a political party, is a leader or a member of its executive or holds any office in a political party or is a registered member of a political party or is an activist of a political party or has ever contested for any position or office in a political party or has ever been appointed to occupy any position or office in a political party or is partisan shall not be qualified to be appointed as an editor of the state-owned media'.
Article 166 (3) of the current provision provides that the NMC shall consist of 18 members, comprising representatives each from the Ghana Bar Association, the publishers and owners of the private press, the Ghana Association of Writers and the Ghana Library Association, the Christian group (the National Catholic Secretariat, the Christian Council and the Ghana Pentecostal Council) and the Federation of Muslim Councils and Ahmadiyya Mission.
Other organisations represented on the commission are the training institutions of journalists and communicators, the Ghana Advertising Association and the Institute of Public Relations of Ghana, the Ghana National Association of Teachers, the National Council on Women and Development, the Trade Unions Congress and the Association of Private Broadcasters.
The rest are two representatives nominated by the Ghana Journalists Association, two persons appointed by the President and three persons nominated by Parliament.
Read original post here: 'Change Provisions For Slot Of NMC, Editors'
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