Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC)

The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) is Ghana’s primary state-owned public broadcaster and the country’s oldest broadcasting institution, tracing its origins to a colonial relay station opened in Accra in 1935 and constituted in its present corporate form by decree in 1968. Headquartered in Accra, it operates a national network spanning television, radio and online platforms, and remains one of the most widely received news sources in the country, particularly outside the main urban centres.

Media assets

Television: GTV, GTV Sports+, GBC 24, GTV Life, Obonu TV

Radio: National: Radio 1, Radio 2; Local: Uniiq FM, Volta Star, Twin City Radio, Radio Central, Radio Savannah, Garden City Radio, URA Radio, Radio Upper West, Sunrise FM, Obonu FM, Radio BAR

Ownership and governance

GBC is a state-owned public broadcaster. Its highest governing authority is a board appointed by the National Media Commission (NMC), the constitutional body created under Chapter 12 of the 1992 Constitution and the National Media Commission Act of 1993 to insulate state media from government control. The NMC is by design a plural body of 15 members drawn largely from professional and civil-society nominees, with only a minority appointed by the President or nominated by Parliament. In practice, however, the State Media Monitor review finds that these formal safeguards have not fully insulated GBC from executive and political pressure: under Article 168 of the Constitution the Commission appoints the broadcaster’s board and Director-General in consultation with the President, the commission’s administrative expenses are charged to the public purse, and senior appointments at GBC remain bound up with the state’s institutional architecture.

The governance of the broadcaster became openly contested during 2025 and into 2026. Director-General Amin Alhassan has been in office since 2019; the NMC said it renewed his appointment on 26 February 2024 and announced the renewal at the inauguration of a new GBC board in August 2024. The arrangement drew sustained scrutiny after the new administration of President John Mahama, on taking office in January 2025, dissolved statutory boards under the Presidential (Transition) Act, a directive that excluded independent constitutional bodies, leaving the status of GBC’s NMC-appointed board contested, and after the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department suspended Alhassan’s salary from March 2025 over the absence of financial clearance. GBC’s staff unions publicly demanded his removal, protesting during a presidential visit to the broadcaster in January 2026, while Alhassan maintained that only the NMC, not the executive, holds the constitutional mandate to appoint or dismiss the Director-General.

Source of funding and budget

GBC is financed through a combination of a television licence fee, commercial advertising and government grants. The licence fee has long been difficult to enforce, and according to the State Media Monitor review, efforts to establish a more sustainable funding model, whether through a restructured licence regime or digital subscription levies, remained stalled in the legislature as of mid-2025. The broadcaster’s commercial performance has also come under strain: in early 2025 its own management warned staff of weak first-quarter revenue figures and a difficult financial year ahead.

Editorial independence

Although GBC’s editorial policy formally pledges impartiality and a public-service orientation, the State Media Monitor review finds that the broadcaster continues to face political pressure that undermines its independence, with its interviews and review indicating that such pressure has at times been exerted through informal channels involving state and media-governance actors. The review records that in January 2024 GBC was criticised for the last-minute cancellation of an interview with Nana Kwame Bediako, leader of the New Force movement, allegedly under pressure from senior government figures, and that the GBC360 portal launched in 2025 showed little departure from the broadcaster’s traditionally government-aligned output. Ghana does have formal constitutional safeguards through the NMC, but the State Media Monitor review indicates that these mechanisms have not in practice insulated GBC from government pressure, and the internal editorial structures that exist are described as lacking the autonomy or legal backing to withstand it.

These conditions place GBC in the State-Controlled (SC) category: although it carries the formal architecture of a public-service broadcaster, a public-service mandate, a constitutional regulator and a licence-fee funding stream, those arms-length safeguards have proven ineffective in practice. GBC’s NMC-based protections have been repeatedly contested, and the 2025–2026 dispute left the broadcaster caught directly between the Commission, the executive, public-finance authorities and its own staff unions. The SC classification continues to apply for 2026.

AI and digital policy

No GBC-specific published policy on AI-generated content, synthetic-media disclosure, or content-provenance standards such as C2PA was identified. The broadcaster has expanded its digital footprint through the GBC360 portal and its online platforms, but no sector-specific framework governing AI-generated or synthetic news content in Ghana’s state media was identified.

May 2026