We won't pay TV licence fee - Viewers declare
Owners and users of television sets have opposed the collection of the TV licence fees since it was announced by the National Media Commission (NMC) earlier this month.
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The Television Licensing Act - 1966 (NLCD 89) which established the licence fees and was amended in 1991 under the PNDC Law states that, “Except as otherwise prescribed, a person shall not install or use a television receiving set unless there is in existence in relation to that set a valid television receiving set licence granted by the licensing authority under this Act”.
Mr Kabral Blay-Amihere, the Chairman of the NMC, who announced the upward adjustment of the TV licence earlier this month at a news conference, said the resumption of the collection of the fees was expected to place the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) on a better financial footing to fulfil its public service broadcasting mandate under the 1992 Constitution.
Users’ concerns
However, according to some of the users, they do not see the need to obtain the licences when they do not watch GTV or are not satisfied with the programmes of the national television station which is going to benefit largely from the fees.
Others also described the resumption of the TV licence as “unlawful”, “ bogus”, “totally rubbish”, and a means for the management of the state-owned media to squander money given to them.
One such outbursts was made by the founder of Ghana’s first private radio station, Radio Eye, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, who in a statement called for the immediate suspension of the planned collection of TV licence fees in a campaign dubbed “#suspendtvlicense”.
According to him “the GBC today does not qualify as a public broadcaster in any shape or form.… It operates as a commercial broadcaster, charging advertising fees in competition with the private broadcasters who do not get licence fees”.
He argues further that “the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) does not qualify to be funded by public funds of any description, especially from a compulsory licence fee.”
Also in an interview with a cross-section of the public, a taxi driver, Mr Kofi Boakye, expressed his reservation about the revival of the payment of TV licence fee saying that “it is needless and unnecessary”.
“I do not see why I should pay TV licence fees, especially for the fact that it is going to GBC. They do not produce any interesting content which motivates me to watch. Moreover, now there are lots of decoders all over so why should I even bother to watch GTV,” he asked.
Justifying why he was not interested in paying the licence fee, Ms Vivian Atizo, a businesswoman, said GTV stations did commercials and took money from the public, while the government topped it up with the “taxes we pay so what do they want from us again?”
Edmund Nene, a student, questioned whether the TV licence fee was to be paid for watching GTV or for the ownership of a television, adding, “Ghanaians need better explanation because the fact that I own a television does not mean I watch GTV and I cannot pay for something that will not benefit me”.
Ms Agnes Antwi, a banker, also said “As for me, I think this whole fee is another way to extort money from us the citizens because we cannot continue to glorify inefficiency and mismanagment by paying the TV licence fee.”
Justifying the law that established the TV licence, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Subsidiary Legislation, Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, in an interview with the Daily Graphic stated that the TV Licence Law had been in existence for more than 20 years.
Mr Amoah, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Akwapim South Constituency in the Eastern Region, said the Television Licensing Act - 1966 (NLCD 89) was amended in 1991 under the PNDC Law which mandated GBC to charge TV licence fees.
Contrary to the assertion that Parliament recently passed the law, Mr Amoah said parliament only reviewed the fee upwards under the Fees and Charges (Amendment) Instrument, 2014 (L.I 2216) and approved the new fee.
TV Licence Law
In defence of the claims made by the public, the Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Major Albert Don-Chebe (retd), said the TV licence fee was not paid for viewing the company’s programmes but owning the television.
“The law is explicit. It is not when you switch your TV on that you are liable to pay the licence fee. It is the ownership of the TV set. It’s like owning a car; the moment your car arrives at the Tema Port you cannot drive it on the roads of Ghana without obtaining a temporary licence first”, he said.
Subventions
On claims that GTV got some subventions from government so it did not need to collect money from the general public, Major Don-Chebe said those subventions came in the form of salaries because the collection of the TV licence fees had not been revised. The company therefore relied on the government for support.
“GBC was compelled to do public service broadcasting and funding from the government was only in the form of salaries. Where do they expect us to get the operational funds to pay for electricity, water, buy equipment and undertake field trips? All these came from commercial operations”, he said.
Therefore, he added, when the licence fees were collected, that would help fund public service broadcasting so that it would no longer be necessary for GBC to rely on the government.
Additionally, he said, the government, in the next 18 months, was going to take six organisations off its subvention so the collection of the licence fees would enable the state broadcaster to stand on its own feet.
Collection methods
On how GBC was going to effectively collect the funds, Major Don-Chebe said the collection was not going to be done by knocking on the door of users as was done in the past but rather with the use of technology.
He said with the introduction of the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), all television broadcasting stations, that is free-to-air television stations, were going to operate on the same platform using the same transmitters.
Therefore, he said, all those who had analogue televisions would require set-up boxes or decoders to be able to decode the signals from the digital channels and “the simple issue is to encrypt the signal such that if you have not paid your TV licence, you cannot access any of the free-to-air signals or watch any television station in Ghana”.
Why GIBA should benefit
On why the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) has to benefit from the funds though they undertook some commercial operations, Major Don-Chebe said because the broadcasting landscape had changed and as such GBC was not the only broadcaster, it was only fair that independent broadcasters who spent some of their airtime carrying public service messages should also benefit from the fund.
“It is not as if the money is to be shared to GIBA members. The broadcasting stations must demonstrate that they have undertaken public service broadcasting, which would be certified by the National Media Commission before they receive any funding”, he indicated.
Laudable idea
The President of GIBA, Mr Akwasi Agyeman, said the association welcomed the concerns raised by some sections of the public, particularly on GIBA.
He also said though the fees were for public service broadcasting, private broadcasters had in the past provided airtime for national campaigns on health, elections, agriculture, among others. It was therefore only fair to formalise such a relationship with the government by having a certain percentage of the funds collected so that members of the association would create public service blogs for national issues.
“So we are not being paid free monies but for the airtime we provide for national activities. We have provided such airtimes in the past, which we saw as public service, so it is just trying to formalise that kind of relationship that the fee of 15 per cent has been provided for us”, he said.
Mr Agyeman, however, expressed the hope that there would be an effective monitoring policy to ensure that “people” were really being paid for the service they rendered.
