GJA Renews Call for Swift Passage of Ghana’s Broadcasting Bill on World Radio Day 2026

Marking World Radio Day 2026, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has issued a powerful and timely reminder to policymakers: the swift passage of the long-delayed Broadcasting Bill is not just a legislative formality, but a critical necessity for modernizing, regulating, and strengthening Ghana’s vital radio industry. This renewed advocacy highlights a persistent policy gap and underscores radio’s irreplaceable role in Ghanaian democracy, development, and community cohesion, all while navigating the new challenges posed by artificial intelligence.

Key Points at a Glance

• Core Advocacy: The GJA is urging the Executive and Parliament to prioritize and pass the Broadcasting Bill, pending since 2009, to establish a modern legal framework for the sector.
• Strategic Importance: The bill is framed as essential for democratic consolidation, national development, and creating a predictable regulatory environment for broadcasters.
• Radio’s Central Role: Radio is affirmed as Ghana’s most accessible and far-reaching medium, crucial for information dissemination, civic education, and grassroots development across urban and remote areas.
• AI & Ethics: The 2026 World Radio Day theme, “AI is a Tool, Not a Voice,” is embraced, stressing that human editorial judgment and ethical standards must remain the bedrock of journalism amidst technological change.
• Industry Challenges: The GJA acknowledges the resilience of private and community broadcasters operating under financial strain, regulatory uncertainty, and intense digital competition.
• Call to Professionals: Radio journalists are urged to uphold integrity and accuracy, ensuring technology like AI enhances, rather than erodes, public trust.

Introduction: A Decades-Long Wait for Legal Modernization

The annual celebration of World Radio Day, established by UNESCO, serves as both a commemoration of radio’s power and a platform to advocate for its future. In 2026, under the anticipated global theme exploring the intersection of artificial intelligence and broadcasting, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) used the occasion to focus on a domestic issue of profound national importance: the enactment of a comprehensive Broadcasting Bill. For over 15 years, Ghana’s broadcasting sector has operated in a legislative limbo, governed by a patchwork of older laws and regulatory instruments that struggle to address 21st-century realities. The GJA’s statement, signed by President Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, transforms a symbolic day into a urgent policy appeal, arguing that legal modernization is the foundational step to secure radio’s continued relevance and impact.

Background: The Long Journey of the Broadcasting Bill and Ghana’s Media Landscape

Historical Context: The 2009 Bill and Its Stalled Path

The current draft Broadcasting Bill was first introduced in Parliament in 2009. Its gestation has spanned multiple electoral cycles and parliamentary terms, reflecting the complex interplay of political will, industry lobbying, and the evolving challenges of media governance. The bill aims to repeal and replace outdated laws like the Radio and Television Act, 1996 (Act 525), which predates the digital revolution, widespread internet penetration, and the convergence of media platforms. Its stated objectives typically include:

• Establishing a clear, independent, and empowered regulatory body.
• Defining and protecting the public interest in broadcasting.
• Setting transparent rules for licensing, frequency allocation, and content standards.
• Ensuring a balance between commercial viability, community service, and state broadcasting mandates.
• Addressing issues of media ownership concentration and pluralism.

The prolonged delay has created a climate of uncertainty, where broadcasters operate without a definitive legal compass for resolving modern disputes, managing digital transitions, or upholding robust ethical codes with statutory backing.

Ghana’s Radio Ecosystem: A Vibrant but Pressured Sector

Despite regulatory ambiguities, Ghana’s radio sector is widely regarded as one of the most dynamic and pluralistic in West Africa. It features:

• Commercial Broadcasters: A competitive private sector driving innovation in entertainment, talk shows, and news.
• Community Radio: A vital network of locally-focused stations serving specific geographic and linguistic communities, often in rural and hard-to-reach areas.
• State Broadcaster: The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), with a constitutional mandate to serve the public interest.

This diversity is a strength, but the GJA’s statement candidly acknowledges the significant operational pressures. These include rising costs (energy, equipment, skilled labor), limited and often unreliable revenue streams for community stations, the disruptive impact of social media and online streaming on listenership and advertising, and the absence of a clear, enforced legal framework to mediate disputes or provide stability.

Analysis: Why the Broadcasting Bill is a Critical Reform Instrument

1. Fortifying Democratic Governance and Accountability

A robust, independent broadcasting sector is a cornerstone of democratic consolidation. Radio, with its low barriers to access (a simple battery-powered set), reaches populations where literacy is low or print media distribution is challenging. It is a primary arena for public discourse, political debate, and holding power to account. The Broadcasting Bill, if crafted with safeguards for editorial independence and freedom of expression as enshrined in Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, can institutionalize these functions. It can create a regulatory environment that prevents political interference in licensing and frequency management, thereby strengthening radio’s role as a watchdog and a forum for citizen participation.

2. Navigating the Digital Transition and Technological Disruption

The media landscape has been upended by digital technology. The bill provides an opportunity to create forward-looking policies on:

• Digital Migration: Setting timelines and support mechanisms for the transition from analog to digital terrestrial broadcasting, which can free up spectrum for more channels and high-quality services.
• Convergence: Addressing the blurring lines between traditional broadcasting, online streaming, and social media, ensuring a level playing field and coherent content regulation.
• Spectrum Management: Establishing transparent, efficient, and corruption-resistant processes for allocating and managing the radio frequency spectrum, a scarce public resource.

3. The 2026 World Radio Day Theme: “AI is a Tool, Not a Voice”

The GJA’s alignment with this theme is profoundly significant. Artificial intelligence is rapidly integrating into broadcasting operations—from automated news reading and content curation to audience analytics and social media management. The theme serves as a crucial ethical checkpoint. It reaffirms that while AI can be a powerful tool for efficiency and data processing, the core values of journalism—verification, context, ethical judgment, accountability, and human empathy—cannot be automated. The Broadcasting Bill could, and many argue should, include provisions or empower a regulator to issue guidelines on the ethical use of AI in newsrooms, ensuring transparency (e.g., labeling AI-generated content), preventing algorithmic bias, and protecting against the erosion of journalistic credibility through deepfakes or automated misinformation.

4. Securing Financial Sustainability and Public Interest Obligations

The bill can establish mechanisms to support the sector’s financial health. This might include:

• Defining and enforcing public service broadcasting obligations for licensees, potentially linked to fee structures or state support.
• Creating a legal basis for a broadcasting development fund to support community stations, training, and innovation.
• Setting clear, fair rules on advertising, sponsorship, and political party broadcasts to ensure revenue is not tied to compromising editorial integrity.

Practical Advice: Recommendations for Stakeholders

For Parliament and the Executive:

• Prioritize Deliberation: Move the Broadcasting Bill from the legislative backburner to the front bench. Conduct transparent, inclusive public and stakeholder hearings to refine the bill.
• Build Consensus: Engage across political divides to ensure the law is seen as a national, not partisan, asset for media development.
• Align with Global Standards: Ensure the bill and the resulting regulatory body comply with international best practices on freedom of expression, media independence, and regulatory excellence (e.g., principles from the Council of Europe or the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights).

For the National Communications Authority (NCA) and Future Regulator:

• Prepare for Enhanced Role: Begin capacity-building for the expanded regulatory functions the new law will likely entail, particularly in digital oversight and AI ethics guidance.
• Interim Fairness: Until the law passes, apply existing regulations (like the 2008 Broadcasting Bill guidelines) with maximum transparency and procedural justice to build industry trust.

For Radio Station Owners and Managers:

• Business Model Innovation: Diversify revenue beyond traditional advertising. Explore memberships, sponsored community programs, content syndication, and digital monetization strategies.
• Invest in Local Content: Double down on hyper-local, multilingual programming that online global platforms cannot replicate. This is a sustainable competitive advantage.
• Ethical Tech Adoption: Develop internal policies for using AI tools. Train staff on verification processes for AI-assisted content and maintain a clear human-in-the-loop editorial chain for news.

For Radio Journalists and Personnel:

• Uphold the Craft: In an era of speed and automation, double down on the fundamentals: meticulous fact-checking, deep community sourcing, narrative storytelling, and ethical courage.
• Be AI-Literate: Understand the capabilities and limitations of AI tools you may use. Be transparent with audiences about when and how AI assists in production.
• Advocate from Within: Use your professional experience to inform the legislative process. Provide concrete, practical insights on how proposed regulations will impact day-to-day journalism.

FAQ: Addressing Common Questions

Why has the Broadcasting Bill taken so long to pass?

The delay is likely due to a combination of factors: shifting political priorities, complex negotiations between government, private broadcasters, and civil society over the regulator’s structure and powers, resource constraints for parliamentary committees, and the sheer technical complexity of regulating a convergent media landscape. Each new government often reviews pending bills, restarting the cycle.

Will a new Broadcasting Bill restrict press freedom?

This is the central debate. A well-drafted bill, aligned with constitutional guarantees (Article 21 of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution) and international standards, should strengthen press freedom by creating a stable, independent regulatory environment. However, poorly drafted bills can be used as tools for censorship or political control. Civil society and the GJA’s advocacy is crucial to ensure the final text protects, not undermines, editorial independence and freedom of expression.

How does radio remain relevant when everyone has smartphones and social media?

Radio’s relevance stems from its unique advantages: universality (works on cheap, durable radios), immediacy (live interaction), locality (hyper-focused community content), and trust (often perceived as more personal and less susceptible to online misinformation than social media). It is the medium for the 65% of Ghanaians who are not daily internet users and a critical lifeline during emergencies when networks fail.

What specific threats does AI pose to radio journalism?

Key concerns include: the potential for automated, low-quality “news” content to flood airwaves and online streams, diluting trust; the use of deepfake audio to spread misinformation; algorithmic bias in content recommendation engines that can create filter bubbles; and the risk of job displacement for routine technical and production roles. The ethical imperative is to use AI for augmentation—enhancing research, transcription, and data analysis—while keeping human judgment at the core of editorial decision-making.

Conclusion: A Call to Action for Ghana’s Airwaves

The Ghana Journalists Association’s World Radio Day 2026 statement is more than a ceremonial appeal; it is a strategic roadmap for safeguarding a pillar of Ghanaian public life. The Broadcasting Bill represents a long-overdue contract between the nation and its broadcasters—one that defines the rules of the game in a digital age. Its passage will signal a commitment to an informed citizenry, a resilient democracy, and a media ecosystem that can innovate without sacrificing its soul. As the GJA notes, radio’s strength lies in its human voice, its community connection, and its unwavering commitment to truth. A modern broadcasting law is the legal instrument that can ensure this voice remains clear, independent, and powerful for generations to come. The time for action is now.

Sources and Further Reading

• Ghana Journalists Association (GJA). Official Statements and Press Releases.
• UNESCO. World Radio Day Official Resources and Annual Themes.
• Parliament of Ghana. Legislative Documents and Hansard Records on the Broadcasting Bill (2009-Present).
• Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, 1992. (Articles 21 – Freedom of Speech and Press).
• National Communications Authority (NCA). Annual Reports and Regulatory Guidelines.
• Reporters Without Borders. “Ghana” Country Report in the World Press Freedom Index.
• African Union Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, particularly Article 9 on the right to receive information.
• Scholarly analyses on broadcasting regulation in developing democracies, e.g., works from the Centre for Communication Programs Nigeria (CCPN) or the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.