Onua TV/FM sues NMC over “politically tainted harassments”

Media General’s Onua FM/TV has sued the National Media Commission at the High Court in Accra, injuncting the Commission from halting its operations.

The Kanda-based media organisation is “seeking an order for perpetual injunction restraining the NMC from taking any steps that adversely seek to impact the media operations of the company and its associates.”

In a statement on Wednesday, November 29, 2023, Onua FM/TV mentioned numerous attempts by the NMC to use its constitutionally mandated office to “harass” them.

Background

The NMC had asked Onua TV/FM to apologise to the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and other senior officers of the Ghana Armed Forces for accusing them on the morning show of misappropriating funds meant for peacekeeping operations.

The Commission also asked the station and its parent, Media General Limited, to take corrective steps towards ensuring professionalism in their broadcast.

NMC gave them a deadline of November 19, 2023, to address the issues raised in its letter.

But the media group turned down the requests of the regulator, indicating the letter from the regulator was wrongly addressed to the parent company (Media General Limited) instead of the Onua brand as they are separate legal entities.

The stations did not also outline their plans for improvement as directed by NMC.

In a response, the NMC argued that the authorizations granted to Onua were under Media General per its checks with the NCA. The NMC further extended the deadline to November 24, 2023.

Suit

Onua TV/Onua FM is asking the court, among other things, to declare that some orders issued by the Commission to Media General subsidiaries are unlawful and that the “conduct of the NMC in refusing to give the stations an opportunity to be heard before imposing sanctions on them is a breach of the law and of natural justice.”

Notice of suspension from the NMC to the NCA

Meanwhile, the NMC has asked the National Communications Authority (NCA) to suspend the operations of Onua TV/FM.

In a letter dated November 28, 2023, NMC said that “the two stations have become the soundtrack to hateful rhetoric carefully orchestrated to incite ethnic division, provoke mutiny in the armed forces, and prey upon the youth for insurrection against the state.”