The Minister of Communication, Digital Technology, and Innovation, Samuel Nartey George, has stated that the standards for operating social media should not differ from those of traditional media.
He made the remarks at an event organised by the Africa Media Bureau to examine and develop strategies for sustaining Ghana’s media sector.
According to him, social media content creators must be held to the same standards as conventional media, arguing that it is both unacceptable and undemocratic for regulations governing new media to differ from those applied to traditional media.”
“New media must subject itself to the same rigours of conventional media. It is wholly unacceptable and indeed undemocratic for us to have different standards for new media broadcasts and traditional media broadcasts. Once you broadcast, the ethics and standards of the craft must govern your operations,” he said.
He clarified that his position was not about censorship but about regulation.
“I’m not here to speak of censorship. I speak of regulation. The media, be it traditional or new, cannot be said to be a path to regulation. It cannot be the Wild West, where incredulous allegations are made, reputations are damaged, and images are soiled irreparably simply for clickbait.”
“I cannot and will not, as the Minister for the sector, seek to regulate what media outlets publish. Absolutely not. I will never do that. That is your democratically protected editorial discretion. However, in the same vein, my democratically elected mandate is to regulate through my regulators how your editorial discretion is broadcast. So what you say is yours, but how you say it is regulated by us. And so we must draw that fine distinction, especially with new media,” he continued.
Turning his attention to charlatans on television, he stated, “Charlatans parading as men of God, Men, capital M, God, small g, instead of men of God, small m, capital G—and running all kinds of frivolous schemes in the name of God need to be driven out of our airwaves like the temple with a regulatory whip.”
He further condemned fraudulent practices. saying that “Money-doubling and get-rich-quick schemes being broadcast by unscrupulous fetish priests have no place in our public broadcast.”
On indecent content, Mr George said, “Pornographic and sexually explicit content masquerading as adult relationship shows cannot be allowed to continue soiling the innocence of our national airways.”
Calling for collective responsibility, he stressed, “There must be sanity, and we must work together to achieve the same. We cannot put today’s profit ahead of tomorrow’s sanity. Let’s agree as stakeholders to develop a road map together to clean up our airwaves.”
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