We do not have the resources and the capacity to be able to monitor election 2020- NMC

The National Media Commission has expressed its intention to upgrade its capacity to monitor the media terrain ahead of the December elections.

Appearing at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Executive Secretary of the Commission, George Sarpong disclosed that the Commission is not aptly prepared to monitor unfolding events in the media.

According to him, his outfit is also currently suffering a paucity technological support and as such will need one to track real-time intemperate language on the airwaves.

Making his submission at the PAC hearing on Friday, September 11, 2020, Mr. Sarpong explained that the commission is presently finalizing a new system for monitoring.

“We do not have the resources and the capacity to be able to monitor election 2020. So we are working towards alternative approaches to regulate systems that can still help us make some necessary interventions.”

Mr. Sarpong further iterated that extensive work has been undertaken to complete a system that enables them to monitor media “broadly and better than we had previously done”, and will also provide an interactive slot for all and sundry.

“We are building an integrated system that enables crowdsourcing and also citizens to input into the process”.

As a matter of fact, he noted that the system equally “allows for incidents to be logged and time and location stamped. So, that can also help us address questions of fake news and disinformation”.

For election observers such as the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), Mr. Sarpong iterated that their operations could be boosted significantly by this new system.

“It is something that international monitors like CODEO and the rest can also benefit from because you can give them real-time information on what is happening at every polling station.”

Meanwhile, the Commission has disclosed its struggles in stymieing the activities of ‘money-doublers’ who defraud viewers of TV platforms as a result of the freezing of its media content regulation in 2016 by the Supreme Court.

He, however admitted that the NMC, does not have that kind of system set up to check these fraudsters.

Mr. Sarpong urged other institutions to support them in the quest to build the new system that aids to detect fake news.

He noted that it can verify the accuracy of the information that is shared by people regarding events that take place on the day of election and beyond.

The Content Authorization law being championed by the National Media Commission (NMC) was stampeded by the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision by a seven-member panel.

This led to the immediate freezing out the implementation of the law as part of its operation.

The suit challenging the legality of the law was filed by the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) which GIBA argued that aspects of the content of the new law contradicted the freedom granted the media in the 1992 Constitution.