Sam George’s “clean slate”: QMS checked every claim from his off-script remarks at the MFWA forum

On Monday 2 November 2026 the Minister for Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, gave the keynote at a Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) public forum in Accra on ending impunity for crimes against journalists. Mr George, an NDC MP since 2017, has been a minister in President John Dramani Mahama's NDC government since January 2025. The National Communications Authority (NCA), which licenses radio and TV frequencies, sits under his ministry.

His prepared speech, quoted on MFWA's keynote cards, said: "We will not shut down media houses for critical reporting. We will not use the law to silence journalists."

Off script, in a 2:27 clip recorded by Voices of Concern, he told the room: "If you leave me, I will shut down every political and religiously affiliated media house so that we have a clean slate in this country." His written line was about critical reporting and the spoken one about ownership, so they are not word-for-word opposites. Both were said on the same stage, by the same minister, at a press-freedom forum. No full video of the forum is online yet, and the written coverage so far reports only the prepared speech.

QMS checked each claim in the clip against statutes, NCA data and his own past statements.

The verdicts

• True: "35 million people"; "120 TV stations"; "two hours later" the President asked for an amnesty.
• Misleading: "almost 700 radio stations".
• False: "we have a law" against religious ownership; "I announced the first 64"; "it's public record" that the GJA president caused the amnesty.
• Unproven: the 268 media houses; the three-hour meeting with the GJA president; the claim that the GJA president was the reason for the amnesty.
• No legal basis: shutting every political and religiously affiliated station.

The numbers

The 2021 census counted 30,832,019 people, and projections for 2026 put Ghana at about 34.4 million to 35 million, so "35 million" is fair. For TV, the NCA's Q2 2026 list has 170 stations authorised and 124 operating.

"Almost 700 radio stations" matches neither NCA figure. In Q2 2026, 793 FM stations were authorised and 571 were on air, leaving 222 authorised frequencies, about 28%, idle. When Mr George took office (Q4 2024) the figures were 805 authorised and 549 on air. The number on air has risen since, and at least 25 new FM authorisations were issued between November 2025 and June 2026, under his ministry.

Whether that is "madness" is opinion. Ghana has about 17 stations on air per million people, against about 5 in Kenya, 4 to 5 in South Africa and about 6 in Uganda, but about 46 in the United States. Ghana is an outlier in Africa, not worldwide.

"We have a law"

No Act, regulation or NCA form bans religious bodies or political parties from owning broadcast stations. The Electronic Communications Act 2008 (Act 775), the NCA Act (Act 769), the Electronic Communications Regulations 2011 (L.I. 1991) and the Political Parties Act (Act 574) say nothing on it.

The ban exists in the National Media Policy of 2000, which says political parties and religious organisations "shall not be allowed to own or operate radio or television stations". A policy is not binding law. The Broadcasting Bill would have made it law; it has been pending since about 2009, a 2024 draft reportedly dropped safeguards on politically exposed owners, and Mr George's ministry set up a committee to review it in September-October 2025. It is still unpassed.

The NCA's own Q2 2026 list includes a church holding a licence in its own name: Beyond The Word Ministries (Beyond FM), Nkwanta, 90.7 MHz, first authorised in 2011 and renewed in 2023.

Mr George also said religious bodies use "pseudo-entities" and that the NCA cannot see who is behind them. Every licensee in Ghana is a company, church-owned ones included; the Church of Pentecost's Pent TV is a limited company and says so. QMS found no published evidence of disguised religious ownership. The law already gives the NCA tools: L.I. 1991 requires authorisations to name shareholders, Act 775 requires notice before changes of control, lets the NCA demand documents and makes false information a crime punishable by up to three years, and the Companies Act 2019 created a Beneficial Ownership Register. The gap QMS found is the NCA's FM application form (AP03A), which has no section for owners or shareholders.

The "clean slate"

Act 775 lets the NCA revoke a licence for breaches or on national-security grounds, not because of who owns a station. Article 162 of the Constitution says there shall be no impediments to private media and that the media shall not be subject to government control or interference; any limit would need an Act of Parliament that is "reasonably required" under Article 164. A minister's statement is not such a law.

A ban by ownership would reach stations linked to both main parties. The Media Ownership Monitor (2017) found that "every third media outlet has an owner with political affiliations". MFWA's monitoring found that politically affiliated outlets accounted for 54% of ethics violations in 2020-21, and between June 2024 and February 2025 Oman FM (NPP-linked) recorded 192 cases of indecent language and Power FM (which MFWA calls pro-NDC) 177. MFWA's own proposal is to move licensing from the NCA to the independent National Media Commission.

This was not the first time Mr George said "if you leave me". On 14 April 2025, on Channel One TV, he said that if left alone he would cut Ghana to fewer than a hundred radio stations.

The 268 and the first 64

Mr George said he showed the GJA president 268 media houses in a meeting of almost three hours. QMS could not find the figure 268 in any earlier public statement: he spoke of "about 63" in March 2025 and 210 defaulters on 1 August 2025, and the NCA's June 2025 list had 62. There is no public record of the meeting.

"I announced the first 64" is false. On 18 February 2025 he directed the NCA to close seven stations: Gumah FM in Bawku on security grounds and six for licence lapses. The June 2025 batch was announced by an NCA notice issued on his directive, the NCA's own count was 62, and the figure 64 came from the Presidency.

The amnesty

On the timing he is right. On 12 June 2025 the shutdown was first reported at 12:32pm and the President's request for clemency at 2:42pm, about two hours and ten minutes later.

On the reason, the record points elsewhere. The Presidency's explanation that day, given by Felix Kwakye Ofosu, was that "regulatory compliance must take into account the need to uphold and enhance media freedom". The only GJA statement came the next morning, praised the decision, and was signed by its General Secretary, Kofi Yeboah, not its president, Albert Dwumfour. QMS found no report of any GJA call or meeting with the President before the clemency. On 1 August 2025 Mr George himself said the amnesty was to give defaulters a chance to regularise. On Monday he said, "I'm putting it out today", while noting the GJA president was not present. Mr Dwumfour held a separate press conference that day and had not responded at the time of writing.

After the amnesty, 58 of 64 stations had applied to regularise by 1 August 2025, and on 12 August the NCA suspended nine stations, six for ignoring the amnesty and three Wontumi stations.

What he said in opposition

Under President Nana Akufo-Addo's NPP government, stations including the NDC-friendly Radio Gold were shut down. As an NDC MP in opposition, in a World Radio Day statement dated 13 February 2020, Mr George said radio stations had been "arbitrarily shut down", counted 131, and called the regulator's use of Article 164 "an abuse of the Constitution". In October 2021 he called the 2017 Radio Gold shutdown illegal, and as an MP he warned the government not to regulate churches. As minister he now uses the same defence, that the law is only being applied and no one is targeted, that the NPP's Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful used in 2019.

In his prepared speech Mr George said Ghana had risen to 39th of 180 in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index, up from 52nd. That is accurate.

The Ministry of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations, the Office of the President and the GJA are invited to respond. Any response or correction will be added to this story.

ON RECORD is a QMS show that checks what public figures say against the record. This story is based on the episode's fact check. "Unproven" means QMS found no record either way; it is not a finding that anyone lied.