GBC Director General asked to proceed on leave
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.
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