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General News of Friday, 14 August 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

Atiku condemns N5m fine on Lagos based radio station

Atiku Abubakar Atiku Abubakar

Former vice president and presidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar has decried the recent N5m fine imposed on Lagos based radion station, Nigeria Info.

In a statement signed and released to the media, Atiku described the recent action by the Federal government, an "attempt to gag the media" in the country.

He further asked the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to drop the penalty.

According to Channels TV, Atiku disagreed with the nation’s broadcasting regulatory agency with its argument that the interview the station had with a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Obadiah Mailafia, constituted any infringement and exposed the media outfit to trading in hate speech.

He argued that whether or not, what Mailafia said during the programme aired on the radio station was a false claim, it was not the responsibility of the NBC to impose a sanction for a comment made by an individual.

Atiku stressed that the former CBN deputy governor had been quizzed and released by law enforcement agents, adding that they were at liberty to prosecute him in court if they were not satisfied with his explanations.

He insisted that it was wrong to make a scapegoat of the media platform which provides opportunities for citizens to ventilate their views.

Atiku also called on the NBC to review the hate speech prohibition code, saying the interpretation of same was offensive to the notion of free speech, Channels TV said.

The statement read in part: "We are compelled to react to the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission code concerning infringement on hate speech and the operational style that media houses should employ to conform with the new regulation.

"While there is no disputation over the fact that hate speech portends an existential threat to the enterprise of journalistic reporting and, in fact, inhibits the workings for a free society, it is absolutely repugnant that powers that be would instrumentalise the prevention of hate speech as a means of constricting free speech.

"Whether or not what Dr Mailafia said on the radio station was a false claim, it is outside of the objectives of a responsible regulatory framework to sanction a radio station for a comment an individual made, more so that the personality in question, Dr Obadiah, had been quizzed and released by law enforcement agents."