Media practitioners petition NMC over porn movies on television

Pornographic is a taboo subject in many communities in Ghana. It is not in anyway entertained as some people do not want to hear about the word not to talk about what it actually is.

Some people are upset as pornography movies are streamed late on some television stations and they have registered their displeasure by petitioning the National Media Commission (NMC).

Ace broadcasters, Tommy Annan-Forson and James Oberko want the Commission to take an action against the television stations that telecast the pornographic material.

Social media has been awash with complaints against stations like Ice TV, XYZ TV and Thunder TV who are reportedly to show pornography movies.

A petition sighted by Joy News filed by the two said from May 26 to June 7, they observed through painstaking monitoring that the aforementioned stations showed pornographic content contrary to the broadcasting guidelines.

They are hoping the NMC and National Communication Authority (NCA) and Parliament will deal with the matter.

Reacting to the petition on Joy FM's Newsnite Monday, the NMC's Executive Secretary, George Sarpong said the Commission has observed a certain trend much earlier in the year although not in relation to the current proliferation of pornography.

“I must confess that some TV stations have played hide and seek with it. Our view is that they were trying to test the pulse of the regulators and see what would happen,” he said.

Mr Sarpong said some of such challenges formed the basis for which the Content Standard Regulation bill was drafted to regulating content churned out by media houses. The Supreme Court has directed implementation of the law to be halted following a suit by the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA).

He admitted the Commission is “aware of the creeping problems [pornography movies]" but said they did not know the specific TV stations cited by the petitioners were involved in that.

“At the time we were putting our law together, there was actually a pornographic service on MTN short code 1615 (video)…it has been taken off now but we cannot tell if it is because of our laws or something else but the coincidence of the withdrawal and our laws is very striking,” he said.

He said they will investigate the issues raised in the petition and communicate the outcome to Ghanaians.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Abubakar Ibrahim |[email protected]