By Rachel Kakraba
Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, GBC, Professor Amin Alhassan, is making a case for defining clear blueprints on what constitutes Public Service broadcasting, for effective funding. For him, this is the only way to sustain the eroding trust in the media space, especially Radio.
”We are not saying that a Public Service Funding Mechanism should be for GBC alone and that GBC has the exclusive right on Public Service Media operations, no. We should define what constitutes Public Service and if any media organization fits it whatever funds we generate, we should use that to fund it and we will be able to bring back the eroding trust that is in Radio”, he opined.
Professor Amin who was speaking at a forum on World Radio Day in Accra, said low salaries of media professionals is a major threat to democracy. He, therefore, called for the establishment of minimum standards of working conditions for journalists.
“When you give a mic to somebody that you pay 200 Cedis a month, to speak or to determine who will speak, you are endangering our democracy. It’s time for us to develop a conversation around in ensuring that there are certain minimum standards of working conditions. We need to see how their economic conditions can be sustained so that we can also demand some minimum guarantees from them”, he noted.
Professor Amin Alhassan identified Radio as an instrument of building multi-ethnicity. To this end he said GBC, remains committed to expanding its radio networks nationwide.
“Any Community where there are inter-ethnic conflicts go to that Community and see the level of media penetration, especially Radio. You will find out that there aren’t many or there is nothing. The last time people in Chereponi were fighting among themselves and we were calling on them to stop, they never heard us, that was the truth because the radio signal didn’t go there”, he disclosed.
