Parliament has approved a number of annual budget estimates for some state institutions, including the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, for the year ending December 31, 2024.
The spending plans for the next 12 months were approved by consensus without the usual resentment behaviour that comes with such parliamentary decision-making.
Budget estimates for institutions such as the Office of the Legal Aid Commission, National Media Commission (NMC), Public Service Commission, and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) were all approved.
Members 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).
Prior to these approvals Members were allowed to comment on the estimates and also highlight the need for the finance ministry to release funds as soon as possible for these institutions.
According to MPs, the National Media Commission for the next 12 months intends to undertake Media Regulation and Management activities and will also seek a 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 laws on complaints settlement, develop guidelines on investigative journalism and hate speech as well as establish an 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 also 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 review of the NMC regulations will focus on local language broadcasting, political reporting, political advertising, coverage of political parties by state-owned media and legislative review in the areas of complaints settlement instruments.
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 would 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.
