An Accra High Court has ordered Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) to pay an amount of GHC1,500 to the National Communications Authority (NCA) in order to access some information it requested from the Authority.
MFWA went to court to challenge a demand by NCA to pay GHc2,000 in order to access information requested by the Foundation.
Based on the NCA’s request for payment, the MFWA dashed to court suing the National Communications Authority.
The MFWA had requested for the list of radio stations closed down and their owners amkng other request.
On July 22, 2020, the MFWA, through its Executive Director, Sulemana Braimah, submitted an access to information request to the NCA, in exercise of rights guaranteed under Article 21(1)(f) of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution and under Ghana’s Right to Information Act, 2019 (Act 989).
The MFWA had requested from the NCA the full list of all FM radio stations (indicating name of company, name of radio station, location, and frequency number) that it had shut down following the Authority’s 2017 FM spectrum audit which, according to the NCA, was in line with the 2018 decision of the Electronic Communications Tribunal.
The MFWA had also requested for the full list of all authorised FM stations as of the second quarter of 2020, with indications of the dates of first authorisation, dates of last authorisation renewals, locations, and operational status of the radio stations – that is whether they are on air or off-air.
The NCA in its response demanded that MFWA pay an amount of GHc2,000 for the processing of the information requested.
This position was contested by MFWA which held that the demand was tantamount to a refusal by the NCA to provide the information.
It also argued for “a declaration that the amount demanded is not only unlawful but unconscionably exorbitant in breach of the letter and spirit of Act 989 and Applicant’s fundamental rights to information.”
A Human Rights division of Accra High Court presided over by Justice Gifty Agyei-Addo in its judgement ordered the NCA to provide MFWA with the list of all FM radio stations indicating name of company, name of radio station, location, and frequency number that it had shutdown.
The court however, ordered MFWA to pay an amount of GHc1,500 for the processing of the information, although it admitted that Parliament has not approved any statutory fee for the right to access information.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak