The National Media Commission’s ruling on government’s petition against JoyNews’ ‘Militia in the Heart of the Nation’ documentary, has been described as a disservice to the Nation.

The ruling, according to the Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), did not answer the questions the NMC itself set to answer at the beginning of their hearing.

Sulemana Braimah who spoke on JoyNews’ news analysis show, Newsfile on Saturday said, the NMC sought to find three things.

Sulemana Braimah 

What is a vigilante [militia] group, when did the De-Eye Group [who were revealed in the documentary as a militia group, occupying the former seat of government at Osu] exit the Castle and if they exhibited any form of violence in the documentary?

But according to Braimah, “the nature of the NMC’s ruling brings us back to the initial debates when the documentary premiered.”

He said the ruling is not clear on what a militia group is because their ruling said the De-Eye Group showed no acts of violence in the documentary hence they cannot be called a vigilante/militia group.

This conclusion, Braimah said, is a flawed noting that, what the NMC ruled is tantamount to saying that “until you see the military in combat you shouldn’t call them a military.”

On the use of the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election violence videos in the documentary, the NMC said it was misleading; a conclusion the Multimedia Group disagrees with.

Braimah supported regular panelist on Newsfile, veteran journalist, Kweku Baako, to shoot down the NMC’s conclusion as well.

According to the NMC, the by-election violence videos are unrelated to JoyNews’ documentary but Kweku Baako and Sulemana Braimah noted that the videos were there to make a point in the production of the documentary and there was no breach of ethics in using them.