Obinim TV (OBTV), one of the nine television channels taken off air by the National Communications Authority (NCA) has challenged the regulator’s decision.
The station, owned by the founder of the International God’s Way Church, Bishop Daniel Obinim, was blotted off the screen by the NCA, which indicated that OB TV and the eight others were operating without a licence.
The other affected channels are Clive TV, ECN, Zoe TV, BTA, ATV, Care TV, Kessben TV, and Elijah.
However, General Manager of OBTV, Samuel Owusu Ansah, indicated in an interview on Thursday March 31 that: “OBTV has written to NCA and gone through the process of registration [for] which we have letters from the NCA. We started operating in December 2014 and the last letter from NCA is dated 18 August 2015 concerning this whole issue.”
“I would not really say we are operating without a licence or have not made an attempt in acquiring a licence from NCA,” he told Joy FM.
Meanwhile, the NCA has explained that the nine TV channels were warned last year to get authorisation for their operations, but to no avail, thus, the need to take them off air.
“From time to time, the NCA conducts monitoring exercises and when any unauthorised services are detected, the appropriate enforcement measures are taken. In this recent case, the stations were detected sometime last year and notice was sent to the third party provider [K-NET] and the satellite company. A number of engagements went on, including the grant of a grace period to ensure compliance,” the regulator said in a statement.
The NCA said it will continue its monitoring exercise to ensure compliance by all TV channels.
