Two radio stations affiliated to the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Radio Gold and Radio XYZ – have been taken off the air by the National Communications Authority(NCA) Thursday afternoon.
Some officials of the NCA backed by heavily armed police personnel stormed the premises of Radio XYZ and took the action.
The News Editor of Radio XYZ Eric Ahianyo who confirmed the shut down said the NCA officials came in at a time the station was broadcasting live the press conference by the National Council of the opposition NDC over the invitation of its National Chairman, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo by the CID over some recent crimes in the country.
Meanwhile, the NCA has in a statement said it is shutting down stations who have defaulted in renewing their licenses
“Radio stations operating without valid authorizations as determined by the 2017 FM Broadcasting Audit are being shut down with immediate effect as an enforcement action in view of the decision of the Electronic Communications Tribunal.
“Following the FM Spectrum Audit in 2017, some stations were found to be in default and were fined by the Authority. However, some of the stations in default were not satisfied and proceeded to the various courts; Electronic Communications Tribunal (ECT) and the High Court to appeal against the NCA’s decision.
“This resulted in a decision by the ECT in 2018 which reviewed the status of expired FM Radio Broadcasting Authorisations and which ruled among others that Companies whose authorisations had expired reverted to the same position as a fresh applicant. While some stations shut down following this decision, others did not,” the statement said.
