The National Assembly (NASS) has been urged by Media Rights Agenda (MRA) to launch an intensive probe into the National Broadcasting Commission's (NBC) regulatory actions and accused it of caving in to governmental control.
In a statement released in Lagos, MRA stated that it felt compelled to request the National Assembly's intervention in light of NBC fining two television stations, Television Continental (TVC), and Arise News, N2 million each on Friday for allegedly violating the Nigeria Broadcasting Code. MRA described the action as the latest in a pattern of the NBC abusing its authority to repress broadcasters in violation of fundamental principles of natural justice.
Program officer for MRA, Ms. Maimuna Momoh stated that it was unjust and unfair that the NBC, which wrote the Nigeria Broadcasting Code to create offenses, is the petitioner in the charges of code violation by broadcast stations, investigates the so-called breaches on its own, arraigns the accused stations, and sits in judgment on the matter, frequently without giving the stations as much as a chance to speak in their own defense against the accusations, and sanctions them by imposing fines which are collected by NBC as part of its revenue.
She stated that the concepts of justice, equity, and fairness have clearly been violated by this.
The chief executive officers of Arise Global Media Limited, owners of Arise News, and Continental Broadcasting Service Limited, owners of TVC, received separate letters from the NBC director-general, Mallam Balarabe llelah, dated February 3, 2023, accusing them of breaking the broadcasting code in their coverage of political campaigns and giving them each two weeks to pay a N2 million fine.
MRA criticized the action, saying that this pattern of behavior upheld by the commission has become alarming because, in most cases, it is being employed as a weapon by the minister of information and culture either to obstruct broadcast stations from carrying out their constitutional duties of maintaining the obligations and answerability of the government to the people or it is on its own turning its regulatory function into a source of revenue, frequently doing away with due process and not giving the accused stations a fair hearing.
