{"id":101851,"date":"2025-11-04T04:39:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T04:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=101851"},"modified":"2025-11-04T04:39:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T04:39:00","slug":"we-have-no-problem-being-regulated-but-misinformation-bill-draft-is-too-vague-new-media-association","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=101851","title":{"rendered":"We have no problem being regulated, but Misinformation Bill draft is too vague \u2013 New Media Association"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 15 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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The General Secretary of the New Media Association of Ghana says members of his association are not opposed to regulation, but have serious concerns about the Misinformation and Disinformation Bill currently being discussed by government.<\/p>\n

Speaking on JoyNews\u2019 PM Express on Monday, November 3, Jibriel Suliah Jagbesie said they welcome efforts to bring structure to Ghana\u2019s fast-growing digital media space, but insists the current draft bill lacks clarity and could easily be abused.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are happy we are going to be regulated. We don\u2019t have a problem with that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody needs to be regulated. But what we are scared of is the policing side of it. We are also scared about the accountability side of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained that members are worried about vague clauses that give authorities broad powers to penalise content creators without clear justification. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you say that I have done something and then you are coming to take my mobile phone for what I have done, you should be able to give me clear guidelines to tell me exactly what has happened. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe new draft that we are seeing is vague, and most of our members are complaining about it,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

Mr Jagbesie said the Association \u2014 which represents over 200 bloggers, photographers, content creators and online journalists \u2014 should have been part of the drafting process. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen something like this is coming, we should be involved,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n

He also questioned the harsh penalties being proposed for misinformation. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven the traditional media sometimes get it a bit wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cSo if you get it a bit wrong, does that mean that you should be imprisoned for five years?\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the concerns, he acknowledged that the government has been engaging the digital media community on several fronts, citing their collaboration with the Communication Ministry on digital monetisation. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Minister, Sam Nartey George, introduced us to TikTok, so we can use our platforms to monetise and be able to get paid, so I think government is working well with the other things. But with respect to this particular bill, we haven\u2019t been engaged,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Chairman of Parliament\u2019s Information and Communication Committee, Abdendego Lamangin Bandim, who was also on the show, urged calm, saying the bill was still at a consultation stage. <\/p>\n

He said the Communication Ministry had deliberately opened the process for public feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just starting the process, and somebody must drive through, which is the Communication Ministry,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Minister thinks that the best thing to do is to put the bill in its current form and allow public engagement. So if you have concerns, you can send your concerns for consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"WeThe General Secretary of the New Media Association of Ghana says members of his association are not opposed to regulation, but have serious concerns about the Misinformation and Disinformation Bill currently being discussed by government.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1906,11836,11837,1883,11838,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hp-news-5","category-jibriel-suliah-jagbesie","category-misinformation-and-disinformation-bill","category-national","category-new-media-association-of-ghana","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101851\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=101851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=101851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}