The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has petitioned the National Media Commission (NMC) to resist any attempt by government to reduce the channels of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) on the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) platform.

In the petition copied to Myjoyonline.com, the Foundation questioned the legitimacy of government in making the demand, noting that the directive undermines the constitutional provisions of the independence of the state broadcaster.

It, therefore, urged the NMC which is the body mandated by the constitution to be responsible for GBC, to fight of any means by the government to control the contents of the state broadcaster.

“These legal provisions are meant to stave off interferences in the management and editorial discretion of the state media. The provisions are also designed to enable the state media offer fair voice and visibility to all segments of the national population including minority groups and interests.

“Therefore, not only is this attempt by the Minister of Communication to sequester three of the TV channels of the state broadcaster an expression of ministerial overreach; it also unfairly reduces the public service broadcaster’s footprint within the current 40-channels platform.

This comes after the Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful in a letter dated June 26 informed GBC to reduce the number of channels it has on the DTT from six to three.

She explained that it is it is “to ensure there is redundancy on the National DTT platform which is currently at full capacity.”