The management of Ice TV has threatened a court action against the National Media Commission for restraining it from airing pornographic movies. They say they would want the court to give clarification on whether the Commission has the right to stop it from airing such content on free-to-air TV.
The National Media Commission (NMC) on Thursday ordered Ice TV, TV XYZ and Thunder TVto immediately cease broadcast of pornographic materials. This follows a petition to the Commission against the activity of the three channels by broadcasters James Oberko and Tommy Annan Forson.
The complainants said the act by the station was inappropriate. But the management of Ice TV insisted that, they had not breached any law in the airing the explicit content arguing that its broadcasts were often not during prime time.
The Chairman of the National Commission, Kwesi Gyan Apenteng, however, declared that the actions of Ice TV and the 2 other stations were a clear violation of its Broadcasting Guidelines.
“The National Media Commission has directed television stations XYZ TV, Thunder TV and Ice TV to cease forthwith the airing of pornographic materials on their television stations,” he said. “Section 7 (e) of the NMC Broadcasting Guidelines provides that “Actual sexual intercourse between humans should at no time be transmitted…this provision does not admit of any “exceptions,” he added.
The General Manager of Ice TV, Samuel Owusu Asare, has told Citi News that, his outfit will abide by the directive, however it would want to ensure that it is fairly applied to ensure that any station that breaches the regulation is equally penalized.
“This order that has been given to us, we will abide it but we want to make sure that it is going to apply to all other TV stations. We will come back to seek more clarification from the court because you cannot tell us to stop showing pornographic materials and later on we’ll see other TV telecasting such materials, we wouldn’t take that kindly,” he said.