An Accra High Court has ordered Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) to pay an amount of GHC1, 500 cedis to the National Communications Authority (NCA) if it wants to receive some information it requested from the Authority.
MFWA went to court to challenge a demand by NCA to pay GHc2,000 in order to access information requested by the Foundation.
On July 22, 2020, the MFWA’s Executive Director, Sulemana Braimah, submitted an access to information request to the NCA, under Article 21(1)(f) of the 1992 Constitution and under Ghana’s Right to Information Act, 2019 (Act 989).
The MFWA had requested from the NCA the full list of all FM radio stations in Ghana (indicating name of company, name of radio station, location, and frequency number) that has been shut down following the Authority’s 2017 FM spectrum audit which, according to the NCA, was in line with the 2018 decision of the Electronic Communications Tribunal.
The MFWA had also requested for the full list of all authorized FM stations as of the second quarter of 2020, with indications of the dates of first authorisation, dates of last authorisation renewals, locations, and operational status of the radio stations.
But in its response, the NCA demanded that MFWA pay an amount of GHc2, 000 cedis for the processing of the information requested. This position was contested by MFWA which held that the demand was a refusal by the NCA to provide the information.
MFWA also argued for a declaration that the amount demanded is not only unlawful but exorbitant and in breach of the Act 989 and Applicant’s fundamental rights to information.
A Human Rights division of Accra High Court presided over by Justice Gifty Agyei-Addo in its judgement ordered the NCA to provide MFWA with the list of all FM radio stations indicating name of company, name of radio station, location, and frequency number that it had shutdown.
The court however, ordered MFWA to pay an amount of GHc1,500 instead of the initial GHc2,000 demanded by NCA for the processing of the information, although it admitted that Parliament has not approved any statutory fee for the right to access information.
