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General News of Friday, 14 August 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

NBC fines radio station N5m for hate speech, stirs outrage

File photo: National Broadcasting Commission File photo: National Broadcasting Commission

The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) yesterday, August 13, 2020 triggered a public outcry and displeasure for slamming a N5 million fine on a private radio station based in Lagos, Nigeria.

According to the NBC, Info 99.3FM, was hit with the fine for airing views it categorised as hate speech.

The step by the NBC was widely condemned by Nigerians including the former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and former vice-president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

Lawyer and human rights activist in Lagos, Mr. Femi Falana SAN, also condemned the fine, describing it as illegal.

The NBC had penalised the radio station based on the revamped Nigeria Broadcasting Code (NB Code), which jacked up the fine for hate speech from N500,000 to N5 million.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had earlier this month approved the new NBC code, despite opposition from stakeholders in the industry, including Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka.

But the board of NBC yesterday described the new broadcasting code as illegal, saying it cannot be used in regulating broadcasting in Nigeria.

Notwithstanding the controversy around the new broadcasting code, the NBC activated it yesterday to penalize Nigeria Info 99.3FM, Lagos.

The commission, in a statement, expressed concern over what it described as the unprofessional conduct of the station to provide its platform for Mailafia to promote what it labelled as unverifiable views that could encourage or incite people to crime and lead to public disorder.

The commission added that broadcasters hold licences in trust for the people and no broadcast station should be used to promote personal or sectional interests at the expense of the public.

It noted that Mailafia’s comments on the Southern Kaduna crisis were devoid of facts and by broadcasting same to the public, Nigeria Info 99.3FM violated the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.

The NBC said: “By virtue of the provisions of some of the sections, stations are not allowed to broadcast contents that could incite to crime or lead to public disorder or programmes that contain anything that amounts to subversion of constituted authority, capable of compromising the corporate existence of Nigeria as a sovereign entity.

“Broadcasters are to balance all issues in the public interest and ensure that information given in a programme, in whatever form is accurate.

"Consequent on these provisions and 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.

”This is expected to serve as a deterrent to all other broadcast stations in Nigeria who are quick to provide a platform for subversive rhetoric and the expositions of spurious and unverifiable claims, to desist from such.”

It threatened to suspend the licence of broadcast stations that breach the code and warned broadcast stations to desist forthwith from airing unwholesome content, or they should be ready to face sanctions.