A member of Parliament’s Communications Committee is questioning government’s motive to reduce the channels of state broadcaster GBC on the DTT platform by half.

Sam George says the reasons given so far by the Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful for the intended move are not tenable.

The Minister, in a letter to the GBC, highlighted the need to create redundancy on the DTT platform which she argued is currently operating at full capacity.

Speaking to journalists in parliament on Wednesday, she added that the state needs means of communicating to the citizens.

“Right now, if the state has need of broadcasting urgent communication to the public, it does not have any means of doing so.

“If the national security has need of broadcasting urgent communication to the citizens, it does not have any means of doing so,” the Minister said.

But Ningo-Prampram MP Sam George disputes this.

According to him, the state and the national security relies on GBC to broadcast information to the public.

The only reason for government’s move to him is an undisclosed motive.

“Is this not another example of state capture?

“We have recently seen the entry into the media space of family members of the president. You are looking at three TV stations being taken away from GBC.

“Is it because the Asaase media empire wants to get a TV station and they want to take one or more of GBC’s frequencies and give to the Asaase Empire to build an Asaase TV empire?” “We are asking these questions,” Mr. George said.

The Minister has since dismissed the question, referring to it as a figment of the lawmaker’s imagination.