Radio stations whose operating licences were revoked have had the decision reversed.
While we acknowledge the gesture we would be quick to add that of course multitude factors informed the decision.
We recall the many political remarks which the action of the NCA elicited. Indeed there were outright invectives and even threats by the former President who promised retaliation when he returns to the presidency one day.
When those remarks especially the former President’s were uttered we could not suppress the sense of disappointment in us and wish things did not go that way.
Fixing a country or making it work entails among other things supporting the regulatory bodies to do their work bereft of unfounded remarks and accusations imbued with partisan coloration.
When such regulatory bodies take punitive action in consonance with their mandate what we should do under the circumstances is find out whether or not their actions are in tandem with their terms of reference.
Not doing so and simply joining the bandwagon of partisan flavoured commentaries would be injurious to regulatory institutions which are parts of the state.
It would be irresponsible to allow radio stations to operate without regulations. No country allows that. The lessons from Rwanda are still fresh in our memories although the stations which had their licences withdrawn did not suffer their fate because of the contents of their transmissions.
Divergent views are attributes of every democratic setting, no two ways about that, but when the airwaves are allowed to fan ethnocentric hatred and drive the country to the precipice the appropriate agency has the constitutional authority to wield the big stick.
At the time the regulatory agencies took the action against the defaulting radio stations some of them were in arrears of licence renewal for many years.
Now that a window of mercy has been opened for these radio stations it is our hope that the proprietors would ensure that their obligations would no longer be ignored.
National interests should be protected by all Ghanaians, the media and the citizens alike. Anything to the contrary and therefore contravening the terms of the contract between the proprietors and the regulators should attract sanctions as they did previously.
We should not tread on that path again because we have learnt our lessons.
Responsible business practices are hallmarks of good companies and so we expect the resuscitated stations to consider their ways and be wise.
It is appropriate that a workshop for the radio station operatives has been planned as a preceding requirement before resumption of transmissions.
This way the necessary education if that was lacking before will be imparted to the proprietors and their assigns.