Nigeria Info: NBC’s N5m Fine, Attempt To Gag Media, Says Atiku

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has said that the revised code of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) for broadcasting, which prohibits hate speech, is a ploy to gag the media industry in Nigeria.

He stated this on Thursday in a statement by his media centre, the Atiku Media Centre (AMO).

He was reacting to the N5million fine slammed on a radio station, Nigeria Info 99.3, on Thursday by the commission over a recent comment made by a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Obadiah Mailafia, during a broadcast by the station.

Nigeria Info was fined for alleged   unprofessional broadcast,” according to the NBC’ management.

Mailafia, who was on Monday interviewed by the station on one of its programmes, Morning CrossFire, had commented on the Southern Kaduna killings.

Kaduna is one of the worst affected states in the North-West by activities of bandits.

He also claimed during the programme that a northern governor was a leader of the Boko Haram terrorists.

But, NBC, in its statement, said, “The National Broadcasting Commission has noted with grave concern, the unprofessional conduct of Nigeria Info 99.3FM, Lagos, in the handling of the Programme, “Morning Cross Fire”, aired on August 10, 2020, between 8.30am and 9.00am.

“The station provided its platform for the guest, Dr. Mailafia Obadiah, to promote unverifiable and inciting views that could encourage or incite to crime and lead to public disorder.

“Dr. Mailafia Obadia’s comments on the “Southern Kaduna Crisis”, were devoid of facts and by broadcasting same to the public, Nigeria Info 99.3FM, is in violation of the following sections of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code:

“In line with the amendment of the 6th edition of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, Nigeria Info 99.3FM Lagos, has been fined the sum of N5,000,000.00 (Five Million Naira), only.”

Atiku noted tthat much as hate speech was dangerous, the authorities should not hide under it to suppress free speech by the citizenry.

According to him, it is globally acknowledged that one of the core functions of  the mass media is to inform the society on all ranges of issues, including national security.

He added that the mass media had a role to play in ensuring that all possible shades of opinions were given access to be heard.

The former VP said, “In many advanced democracies the world over, criminals on even wanted lists of law enforcement agencies have reached out to the media to express their opinions about the crimes that they had perpetrated and the media space was not denied to them.

“As a matter of fact, it seems somewhat contradictory that a country like ours, which is in the throes of national security skirmishes, would choose to shrink media access to critical information . It is not known if any society had won the war against terrorism by placing a restriction to access to information, in the way the NBC had done.”

Recall that the 6th Amendment to the National Broadcasting Code was unveiled by Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information, on August 4, 2020, in Lagos.

This time, the Code stipulates that those who fall foul of the provision of the broadcast code on hate speech shall pay a fine of N5m, an amount raised up from N500,000.

According to the minister, this will compel media houses to scrutinise adverts and reports before publishing them. He said an offender who violates this law on three occasions will have the operating licence suspended.