The Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) is demanding to preview the final draft of the Broadcasting Bill before it is laid before Parliament.

President of the Association, Cecil Thomas Sunkwa-Mills, explains that since the bill is designed to address the broadcast space, it is only right that they review the bill to ensure that their recommendations and suggestions have been included.

Speaking on JoyFM’s Top Story on August 1, the GIBA president said “What we had expected and what we had actually asked for is that we definitely needed to view the draft document and know what is actually contained in it because there were a number of things that we asked for which would also protect the media and make it quite rigorous but still fair.

“Till we see the document, it is very difficult to tell what is inside and that is a worry that should this document go ahead and get to the point where it is approved without any comment or input from our stakeholders.”

The Information Minister, Fatima Abubakar announced that the bill would be presented to the House under a certificate of urgency and affirmed her outfit's commitment to ensuring that it is passed.

However, Mr Sunkwa-Mills is confident that before that approach, the minister will have afforded GIBA the opportunity to review the document.

On the same show, a private legal practitioner shared the same view as the GIBA president.

Samson Lardy Anyenini questioned the motive for introducing the bill under a certificate of urgency.

He argued that “I think it will be a very bad thing to move under a certificate of urgency when this has been such an important document as far back as 2004 or so (that) the project began. What happened?”

Mr Anyenini added that media stakeholders needed to review the document before it is introduced to Parliament “so that you don’t smuggle things in there just before midnight to elections and then we will wake up and you are shutting our media space. No, that should not happen.”