NPP Boycotts Okay, Neat FM

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has finally boycotted all political programmes on Okay and Neat FM, all Accra-based radio stations.

This was after months of talks between leadership of the party and management of the two radio stations failed to yield results about what the NPP considered as negative and biased publicity. The party subsequently asked its supporters to boycott the two radio stations.

The NPP accused the two stations, especially programmes hosted by Kwame Nkrumah Tikesie and Adakabre Frimpong Manso, of having “developed a format to consistently discuss all matters of the NPP with a negative slant.”

A statement issued by the party and signed by its Deputy Director of Communications, Anthony Abayifaa Karbo, yesterday posited: “These programmes have also concentrated on encouraging submissions which denigrate and insult the party and its flagbearer.

“Several letters, phone calls and face-to-face discussions between us and other management members, the producers and hosts of the programmes to desist from this unethical practice of journalism have gone unheeded.”

For this reason, the statement said, “The mission and vision of the stations currently seem to be to destroy the NPP.”

Even though a firm believer and practitioner of multi-party democracy, with freedom of expression as its cornerstone, Karbo indicated that “The party also believes in the exercise of this freedom with responsibility, and in this case, professionalism.”

On several occasions, the party had complained about the conduct of the two hosts who sometimes deliberately stoke unnecessary debates and tension in the party with their slanted programmes.

It is for this reason that the party has asked its rank and file not to only stop listening, but also to stop calling and participating in programmes of the two radio stations.

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“Party executives, communication officers and members have been advised to desist from speaking or patronising the stations' political programmes with immediate effect,” the statement said with emphasis.

But management of the Despite Group of Companies, under whose ambit the affected radio stations operate, has pleaded with the NPP to reconsider its decision.

In a statement issued yesterday and dated April 1, 2016, it expressed appreciation for the NPP's decision to prompt it on the conduct of the two – Kwame Nkrumah Tikesie and Adakabre Frimpong Manso – indicating that “management would ensure that our programmes are in the larger interest of the Ghanaian public and not any political party.”

The statement added, “We have tried as a station to maintain our neutrality, regardless of the political heat in the country at any given time. We do not intend nor have thought of creating a politically biased station in Ghana as we do understand the consequences of such a decision.”

They expressed hope that the NPP would rescind its decision to boycott programmes on Okay and Neat FM.

By Charles Takyi-Boadu