SECTOR 2 The Ghana Open Data Initiative was set up in 2012 by the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) to enhance public access to government data and to make it more accessible to everyone. Panellists noted, however, that the project had been stalled due to funding issues. “It’s not just a funding issue, but one of political will and interest.” “There’s been a lot of talk that government would set up data community centres so that schools would be able to latch into it, but nothing has happened.” Much remains to be done in meeting the information needs of marginalised communities. “We’ve come far over the years. What is left now is getting Internet to the majority, and moving away from urban areas to the rural areas. There also needs to be more meaningful training with respect to the use of ICTs, in order for meaningful change to happen.” Ghana’s deadline for digital migration was shifted from 2015 to September 2017. In this regard, “the state has advanced considerably in terms of deployment, but there are other pertinent issues that need to be addressed.” There are small media houses that on their own cannot develop what is needed to support migration; and given that content producers no longer need a frequency, there is no licencing regime. In addition, definitions around the relationship between media houses and multiplex holders have not been established. According to a panellist, it was to address some of these concerns that the Content Standards Regulation (LI2224), ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, was developed. “There are real complicated issues in this context.” “In terms of the construction of infrastructure, Ghana is 80 percent done, but we need to come to a secondary level of policy and regulation to have a good and free system.” Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 40 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER GHANA 2017 2.9 (2006:n/a; 2008:n/a; 2011:3.5; 2013:3.5)