NMC appoints Anoff- Ntow as DG of GBC
The National Media Commission has appointed Dr Kwame Akuffo Anoff-Ntow as the new Director-General (DG) of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).
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His appointment takes effect from November 1, this year.
He takes over from Major Albert B. Don-Chebe (retd), who was appointed as the state broadcaster’s DG for a three-year term, effective May 14, 2013 but decided not to return to the corporation after taking his accumulated leave in February this year, largely because of worker agitations.
Major Don-Chebe’s first term was to expire in May 2016.
The Deputy DG of the corporation, Mrs Francis Ashietey-Odunton, has been in charge over in an acting capacity since March this year.
A statement issued by the commission and signed by its Chairman, Mr Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng, said: “Dr Anoff-Ntow has close to two decades of professional experience in broadcasting as a practitioner and scholar.”
“His professional experience spans public broadcasting at GBC, as well as consulting for other media and communication interests across the world,” it said.
It said as a trained television producer/director, he had produced, directed and executively produced many television programmes across several genres.
Dr Anoff-Ntow’s background
“Dr Anoff-Ntow, therefore, comes to the role of Director-General with intimate knowledge of editorial and operational workings of global public broadcasting,” it said.
As a member of the International Public Television (INPUT) forum, Dr Anoff-Ntow has undertaken many projects around best practices in public broadcasting and media.
He was one of the 16 programme experts from around the world who planned and led sessions at INPUT international conferences in Germany, Switzerland and South Africa.
As a communication scholar, his research interests include newsroom journalistic practices, the political economy of public broadcasting in Africa, communication policy and the politics of visual representation.
He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Communications Studies from the University of Calgary in Canada, where his doctoral thesis topic focused on “Public Broadcasting and the politics of media in Ghana: a case study of GBC.”
He is a member of the Ghana Journalists Association, the Canadian Communication Association and sits on the board of the African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA).
Dr Anoff-Ntow takes over at a time workers of the corporation are embroiled in a turf war with the corporation’s board members and some management members who have been locked out on two occasions—July 13, 2016 and September 30, 2016.
GBC red flags
In February this year, workers of the GBC raised red flags against the board members, citing mismanagement of the corporation and recruitment of some workers through the back door.
They accused the board of appointing some management members to micromanage GBC, a situation that did not create a conducive atmosphere for the growth of the corporation.
The local union and the workers have since then appealed to the Ministry of Communication and the National Media Commission (NMC) to intervene.
