The Director General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) Dr. Kwame Akuffo Anoff-Ntow has been asked to proceed on leave by the governing board of the state broadcaster, Starrfmonline.com has gathered.
The directive to Dr. Anoff-Ntow was issued Monday evening, according to a source with knowledge of the development.
He is in his 13th month as the Director General of the state broadcaster.
The directive, the source explained was because of the Corporation’s unpopular resolve to prosecute people who will default in the payment of the mandatory Television license fee.
The TV licensing Act 1966 (NLCD 89) of Ghana mandates the collection of license fees from persons or households owning TV sets. The collection of the fee was reintroduced in 2015.
Domestic TV users are to pay between GH¢36 and GH¢60 for one or more TV sets in a household while TV set repairers and sales outlets are to pay an annual sum of between GHc60 to GHc240.
Commercial TV operators are to pay GHc36 per annum for each TV set.
The Chief Justice recently set up a special TV License Court to handle cases of defaulters.
The decision has courted huge public outcry with the majority declaring they will not pay leading to the governing board to intervene ordering the Corporation to halt its plans.
“Following an evaluation of the situation has instructed the management of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) not to pursue any activity or set of processes, leading to the prosecution of any individual for the non-payment of the Television license fee,” said the board when it made the order.
About the new GBC’s DG
Dr. Akuffo Anoff-Ntow has close to two decades of professional experience in broadcasting as both a practitioner and scholar.
His professional experience spans public broadcasting at GBC as well as consulting for other media and communication interests across the world.
As a trained television producer/director, he has produced, directed and executive produced many television programs across several genres.
Dr. Anoff-Ntow, therefore, comes to the role of the Director General with intimate knowledge of the editorial and operational workings of global public broadcasting. As a member of the International Public Television (INPUT) forum, Dr. Anoff-Ntow has undertaken many international projects around best practice in public broadcasting and media. He was one of the 16 program experts from around the world who planned and led sessions at INPUT international conferences in Germany, USA, Switzerland and South Africa.
As a communications scholar, Dr. Anoff-Ntow’s research interests include newsroom journalistic practices, the political economy of public broadcasting in Africa, communication policy, and the politics of visual representations. He holds a Doctor of Philophy Degree in Communications Studies from the University of Calgary in Canada where his doctoral thesis topic focused on “Public Broadcasting and the politics of media in Ghana: a case study of the GBC.”
He is a member of the Ghana Journalists Association, the Canadian Communications Association and sits on the Board of the African Centre for Parliamentary affairs, ACEPA.
Source: Ghana/StarrFMonline.com/103.5FM
