Parliament has approved various annual budget estimates for spending by some state entities, including the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, for the 2024 fiscal year.
The spending plans for the next 12 months were approved by consensus without the usual rancorous behaviour that characterises such parliamentary decision making.
The other entities are the Office of the Legal Aid Commission, National Media Commission, Public Service Commission, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
The House accordingly approved the sum of GH¢149,005,669 for the services of the OSP, GH¢9,432,774 for the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry, GH¢23,542, 520 for the National Media Commission, GH¢23,614,645 for the services of the Public Services Commission, GH¢88,277,405 for the services of CHRAJ, and GH¢167,547,192 for the services of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE).
The MPs said for the 2024 financial year, the National Media Commission intends to undertake Media Regulation and Management activities and will also seek review of the law that established the NMC.
“The Commission will also accelerate the enactment of laws affecting content delivery across platforms including broadcasting laws, enact new law on complaints settlement, develop guidelines on investigative journalism and hate speech as well as establish appropriate framework for collaborative engagement with the media,” the Special Budget Committee noted in its report.
As part of its efforts to restore integrity in the information ecosystem, the Commission will operationalise a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with the National Communications Authority (NCA), the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Armed Forces, Private Newspaper Publishers, and the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association in preparation for the 2024 general election.
The MPs also said in addition, regulatory enforcement will be scaled up to ensure media compliance with standards.
The Committee noted that the Commission intends to review and improve existing guidelines for media regulation to strengthen and improve its oversight responsibility in the media landscape.
The Committee was informed that the review will focus on local language broadcasting, political reporting, political advertising, coverage of political parties by state-owned media, development of guidelines on hate speech, and legislative review in the areas of complaints settlement instruments.
The Committee was informed that the review will necessitate a legislative revision of the National Media Commission Act, 1993 (Act 449) in order to improve and empower the Commission to carry out its duty as established in Chapter 12 of the Republic of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, the report said.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House