The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), has boycotted two radio stations in Accra belonging to the Despite Group of Companies, owners of Accra-based Peace FM.
According to the NPP, the radio stations, which are Neat FM and Okay FM, “consistently discuss all matters of the NPP with a negative slant.”
The party in a statement signed by its Deputy Communications Director, Anthony Abayifaa Karbo, thus ordered its communicators to stop speaking to the stations.
They claimed that several attempts to ensure a balanced representation of the NPP has proved futile hence the directive.
“Several letters, phone calls and face to face discussions between us and other management members, the producers and host of the programmes, to desist from this unethical practice of journalism have gone unheeded,” the statement added.
“The NPP is a firm believer and practitioner of multi-party democracy, with freedom of expression as its cornerstone, but the Party also believes in the exercise of this freedom with responsibility, and in this case, professionalism.”
NPP boycotted Asempa FM in 2011
This is not the first time the NPP has taken such a stance against a radio station in Ghana.
In 2011, the party boycotted Accra-based Asempa FM and directed its communicators not to represent the party on the station’s political programme “Ekosii Sen.”
The action, according to the party, was because Asempa FM continually focused its programming agenda on attacking the Presidential Candidate of the NPP, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and the party as a whole.
Below is the full statement:
NPP BOYCOTTS OKAY and NEAT FM
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) wishes to inform its members, supporters, and sympathisers that the Party has decided to boycott all political programmes on Okay FM and Neat FM, with immediate effect.
Programs on the two stations which are hosted by Kwame Nkrumah Tikesie and Adakabre Frimpong Manso respectively have in recent months developed a format to consistently discuss all matters of the NPP with a negative slant. These programs have also concentrated on encouraging submissions which denigrate and insult the Party and its Flagbearer.
Several letters, phone calls and face to face discussions between us and other management members, the producers and host of the programmes, to desist from this unethical practice of journalism have gone unheeded.
The mission and vision of the stations currently seem to be to destroy the NPP.
The NPP is a firm believer and practitioner of multi-party democracy, with freedom of expression as its cornerstone, but the Party also believes in the exercise of this freedom with responsibility, and in this case, professionalism.
Party executives, communications officers and members have been advised to desist from speaking or patronizing the stations political programs with immediate effect.
…Signed…
Anthony Abayifaa Karbo
(Deputy Director of Communications)
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana