An Accra High Court has restrained the National Communications Authority from implementing the proposed Conditional Access System (CAS) Inclusion in Free-To-Air TV Receivers.
The policy which the court has quashed meant that one must pay a fee to access information from the TV programmes like in the case of a subscription-based television (Pay TV) service.
The Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association sued the NCA arguing that the use of the Conditional Access System is unconstitutional as same constitutes an unreasonable and unnecessary abridgement of the freedom of the media contained in Article 21(a) and 162 (1) of the 1992 Constitution.
The Court presided over by Justice Eric Baah ina judicial review held that, the Conditional (Controlled) Access System which the NCA has made a requirement amounts to jurisdictional error by excess of jurisdiction in the absence of any substantive or subsidiary legislation to that effect.
Therefore, the provision made for the inclusion of Conditional Access System for Free-to-Air TV receivers is illegal and therefore quashed.
Pursuant to the government policy of migrating from analogue to digital television transmission, there was the need to review the Standards of television receiving equipment in the country.
The Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), in pursuance of its powers established under the Standard Authority Act, NRCD 173, set up the Technical Committee – TC24, and published the first set of Standards for TV Receiving equipment, referred to as GS 1099: 2014.
In 2019, the GSA conducted a review of the GS 1099: 2014 Standards and published the Ghana Standards GS 1099: 2019 as the new Standards that were set on December 18, 2019.
The revised Standards (GS1099: 2019) on Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and Direct-To-Home (DTH) Receivers by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), made Conditional Access System (CAS) non- mandatory for Free-To-Air TV Receivers.
However, on December 30, 2019, the National Communications Authority (NCA), published a policy document indicating the Ghana Minimum Technical Specifications for DTT and DTH for Free- to-Air TV Reception on its official website, which was at odds with the GSA Standards that all stakeholders had agreed upon.
The NCA required the broadcast industry in Ghana and all Ghanaians to acquire a specific type of decoder or integrated digital TV set, meant that all existing free-to-air broadcast signals, which are currently accessed by viewers throughout the country will be controlled with a Conditional Access System before anyone can continue watching any broadcast of free-to-air television programme in Ghana.
It also meant that one must pay a fee to access information from the TV programmes like in the case of a subscription-based television (Pay TV) service.
The NCA’s requirement as minimum specification was rejected by GIBA because, this would require that all DTT free-to-air TV programme transmissions will be encrypted (blocked) in line with their policy.
GIBA has consistently indicated that the authorisation category and business model of its Free-To-Air TV members, requires them to broadcast their contents to the general public in the clear (for free) without content encryption, as recognized by the International Communications Union (ITU) and as authorised by the NCA.
GIBA maintained that, its TV members’ choice to broadcast free-to- air, is their contribution to the needs for open and free access press service as a medium for mass communication in a democracy such as Ghana, which is guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution.
GIBA has since 2017 objected to the introduction of systems of control on Free-to-Air television broadcasting, in contravention of the freedoms guaranteed the media in Chapter 12 of the 1992 Constitution, due to its ability to lockdown the liberalised airwaves and send the nation back to the days of government monopoly and controlled media.
