Minister for Communication and Digitalization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has called on the National Communications Authority (NCA) and the National Media Commission (NMC) to strengthen their supervisory roles in overseeing the media landscape as the country prepares for the 2024 polls.

The minister, while speaking at the launch of the NCA's 5-year strategic plan in Accra, highlighted the importance of media freedom but also emphasized the need for regulated content to prevent the dissemination of potentially inflammatory material.

She called for sanctions against media houses that fail to sanitize their airwaves to serve as a deterrent to others and not compromise the peace the country currently enjoys.

“Two key regulators in this sector are the NCA and the NMC. I know the NCA has set up a broadcast monitoring centre here, which the NMC is using to monitor the content that is put out by all broadcasters, and those who fall foul of their own guidelines are sanctioned. I expect them to deepen that collaboration to ensure that together, we work to sanitize the airwaves, and we don’t see an upsurge in fake news, media publications, defamatory material, and things that will tend to disturb or threaten the peace and security of our nation.”

“So I am expecting the two regulators to work closely together this year to monitor what’s put out and work with the Ghana Journalists Association and Independent Broadcasters Association to sanitize the space for our collective good,” she stated.

In November last year, the National Media Commission (NMC) wrote to the National Communications Authority (NCA), to withdraw the licenses of Onua TV and Onua FM for becoming "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.”

According to the NMC, the two stations have “systematically sought to subvert critical national institutions including the Council of State and the Ghana Armed Forces in a manner that constitutes clear and present danger to the public interest.”

Despite this move, the two media houses continue to operate.

Meanwhile, several distinguished individuals and reputable organizations, such as the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Natioanl Peace Council have called on the public to ensure the 2024 election is devoid of any electoral violence.

The Electoral Commission (EC) and the Police Service have been encouraged to up their game to curtail any electoral malpractice and disturbance during voting and counting of votes.