By Godwill Arthur- Mensah/ Elsie Appiah-Osei
Accra, June 13, GNA-The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Minority Caucus in Parliament has described the President’s decision to pardon 64 radio stations for various regulatory breaches as “populist” and called for its reversal.
This follows the President’s directive to the Minister of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations Innovation, Sam Nartey George, on Thursday, June 12, to liaise with the National Communications Authority (NCA) to immediately restore the broadcast of the radio stations affected by the Regulator’s action.
Mr Charles Asuako Owiredu, the NPP Member of Parliament for Abirem, told the Parliamentary Press Corps at Parliament House.
The lawmaker, also the Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Communications and Information Committee, described the President’s action as a “brazen assault on the independence of regulatory institution and a dangerous precedent that threatened the very foundations of the country’s constitutional democracy.”
“Today’s event represents more than a disagreement over media policy. They constitute a fundamental breach of the separation of powers that our constitution carefully establishes to prevent exactly this type of executive overreach,” the legislator pointed out.
The Minority Caucus argued that the NCA’s decision to close the radio stations was within its express statutory mandate for enforcing the Electronic Communications Act.
“These were not arbitrary decisions but legally required responses to stations operating without valid authorizations, some for years.
“Within hours the President issued a directive countermanding this lawful regulatory action.
“The president has effectively declared that regulatory law is optional when it conflicts with his political preferences,” Mr Owiredu stated.
“When we allow president to override statutory institutions based on policy preferences, we replace the rule of law with that of the rule of men. The question before us is simple, will you defend the Constitution, or will we watch silently as executive power devours the independence of our institutions? Mr Owiredu queried.
GNA
Edited by Lydia Kukua Asamoah