Advertisement

The case for a stronger public broadcast service

Major Albert Don-Chebe (retd) - Director General, GBCWednesday, August 14, 2013, will forever remain one of the saddest days in my life. As the Black Stars battled it out in faraway Turkey against the Turkish national team, I kept reflecting on GTV’s inability to telecast the match live as all countries do when their national teams play such matches.

I cast my mind back to 1982, when the national broadcast service was able to beam the African Cup live from Libya to Ghanaian soccer enthusiasts. Technology then was not even this developed and I vividly remember our joy as we followed the exploits of the likes of Abedi Pele, Emmanuel Quarshie, Kwame Sampson, George Alhassan and goalkeeper Owusu-Mensah.

Even watching the matches on a 14-inch black and white screen with an antennae cable, supported by a 12-feet bamboo pole, our excitement knew no bounds as we watched with pride, the exploits of our heroes. For some of us, that was the beginning of a bond with the national team that has endured till this day.

Alas, 30 something years later, all we get is a radio commentary from a clearly amateur commentator who can hardly draw the line between commentary and comedy.

Watching England playing against Scotland only rubbed more salt in my wound. Obviously, if wishes were horses, I would rather watch the Black Stars play any day than any country in the world. The thing is that the Black Stars appear to be the only part of the national cake we consume with some equity in this country.  A good performance by the Black Stars puts smiles on the faces of almost all Ghanaians; from the President to his driver and the CEO and his messenger. And that is why it borders on sacrilege for anybody to deny us these few pecks (apology Gen I.K. Acheampong), especially in this time and age when technology has made such undertakings a mere routine.

But why can’t the national broadcast service provide a simple service such as the live telecast of a football match to soccer-crazy Ghanaians? After all, the Black Stars don’t play friendly matches every weekend.

The answer is simple; the national broadcast service is cash-strapped! But whose fault is it? I dare say all of us, even if GBC is to take the chunk of the blame. First of all is the laissez-faire attitude to work, bloated workforce, antiquated equipment and failure to realise that they are now in a competitive environment and not a monopoly.

Ever watched a GTV programme when names of people have been correctly spelt throughout the programme?  Imagine watching a programme where Theodosia Okoh is speaking and the name that appears is Oko Vanderpuije. Such minor slips may not hurt a fly but in a competitive environment they mean a lot.

How about being glued to your seat, watching an interesting documentary and just when you have become engrossed in the programme, there is a hissing sound followed by African drums being played loudly and then a new programme appears? You feel not only cheated but also disrespected. Yet, day in and day out, such things happen on GTV.

Perhaps on our part as citizens, we need to financially empower our national broadcaster by providing the financial withal for it to perform like similar institutions across the globe.

The reality is that for democracy to thrive there should be a platform for the citizenry to have discourse and express divergent opinion. The public broadcast service remains one of the most invaluable channels through which Ghanaians could be mobilised for development. This cannot be effective on any private medium where in most cases there is bound to be commercial and other parochial interests coupled with proprietorial interference.

Take the classical case of the live telecast of the ongoing Supreme Court case. Which private broadcaster would be ready to pick such a huge bill just in the name of public interest? You bet not many!

And that is why it is about time we revisited the issue of realistic TV licence fees to support the national broadcaster. Of course I am looking at an entirely new regime where the money collected will not be mismanaged. Also, the fee should be substantial enough to enable us watch matches that we must watch and most importantly, there should be a general improvement in content.

When this is effectively done, we will not see Mallams and traditional healers on our national screens advertising love potions and sika duro, but rather features on how to groom good entrepreneurs and how our farmers could adopt modern practices to increase their yield, etc.

For instance, it now costs GH¢181 to hook on to a monthly subscription of DSTV (premium), which gives us football and other sports and several western programmes. I think that if all Ghanaian TV owners were to pay a reasonable amount of money a month, we could watch some of the football matches that we love so much and still have some extra to produce indigenous programmes.

It is important to stress that even those who go to public places to watch these matches also pay about GH¢1 per match. So all that we will be doing is to be able to watch these matches in the comfort of our homes and still support a national cause.

With a new management in place, it is not too much to ask for an improved service; of course, after the payment of an improved TV licence fee.

We must begin to shift from the embarrassing situation where we must beg for virtually everything.  The multinationals and local companies have been sponsoring international matches for far too long and it is about time we took our destiny into our own hands.

After all, the major democracies which we seek to emulate have well-structured national broadcasters that continue to play a key role in their democratic journey and we cannot behave differently.

By Kofi Baah-Bentum/Daily Graphic/Ghana
The writer is Head, Public Relations and Protocol, University of Cape Coast, and retired senior military officer.
Writer’s e-mail: [email protected]


Connect With Us : 0242202447 | 0551484843 | 0266361755 | 059 199 7513 |