The National Communication Authority (NCA) according to reports has banned a number of TV channels including Obinim TV (OB TV), owned by controversial Bishop Daniel Obinim. At least five other channels were also taken off, including Kessben TV, Angel TV, Care TV, and Capital TV.
There has been an aggressive marketing of miracle services as pastors try to project their ministries as a one-stop shop for life’s problems from financial troubles to marriage.Prominent in digital TV era is the head pastor and founder of the International God’s Way Church, ‘Bishop’ Daniel Obinim.
Videos of his sermons and miracle services are popular on social media where he has been severely criticized for behavior deemed an unethical. He was accused of stepping on and kicking the stomach of a pregnant woman during a healing and deliverance service. But he explained, his critics are ignorant about spiritual realities.
ATV which is owned by businessman and former presidential candidate of the Progressive Peoples Party Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom was also affected. A source at the NCA described the channels as ‘pirate channels’ explaining they operated without a licence, while other channels also have financial obligations to settle with the NCA.
The decision to take the stations off the screens is with immediate effect. Most of these TV’s are mainly on the KNET platform. Checks on digital TVs showed the ‘scrambled channel’ or ‘error loading stream. Not found on server’.
According to a statement from the NCA, some of the channels “did not meet the basic requirement to operate, and above all most didn’t even have the license to operate while some were not regulated to operate.”
A second wave of take-downs is to be expected, the NCA statement suggested. It said active channels which fail to meet operational requirement are expected to go off. Most of them are Christian channels, the statement noted. The introduction of digital TV channels has opened up space for several churches to reach thousands at home.
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