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Regulatory Agency Shuts Private Radio for Alleged Breach of
Broadcasting Code
On 28 March 2006, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Nigeria's
regulatory agency for the broadcast media, imposed sweeping sanctions,
including a partial shut down, on a privately-owned radio station,
"Freedom Radio", for allegedly violating the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.
The NBC banned the station, based in Kano in North West Nigeria, from
broadcasting between 5 pm and 10 pm daily. In addition, Freedom Radio was
ordered to pay the sum of N200,000 (about US$1,600) within 48 hours.
The station was also banned from broadcasting any political programmes,
even after the present restriction on its broadcasting period is
rescinded. The station was also banned from airing specific programmes
such as: "Special programme"; "Kowa ya tuna bara"; "Kowane Gauta"; and "Kowane
Tsuntsu".
The NBC, in a letter dated 27 March 2006 signed by its Director General,
Dr. Silas Babajiya Yisa, and addressed to the General Manager of the
station, accused it of not complying with political broadcast regulations
of the NBC Code as well as violating regulations on talk show programming.
The NBC alleged that its monitoring reports of the station's political and
talk-show programmes "indicated that the maturity required of such
programmes was still lacking with guests and callers making unguarded
comments that violate provisions of the NBC Code always tending to
overheat the polity."
The Commission claimed that its action was informed by the inability of
the anchor persons on the station to handle the banned programmes
professionally over time, from 2005 to date.
But the station denied the charges, saying the NBC's action was intended
to stifle dissenting opinions in the country.
Mr. Mouktar Mohammed, a retired officer in the Nigerian Air Force and
chairman of the board of directors of the station, said the NBC's action
was a political vendetta as the Commission did not give the station a fair
hearing as required by the Nigerian Broadcasting Code before taking the
decision to ban some of its political programmes as well as the other
sanctions.
He said "Freedom Radio" does not broadcast programmes capable of
jeopardizing peace in the country, observing that the action of the NBC
was a deliberate attempt to deprive the country of an a free and
independent source of information under a supposedly democratic country.
"Freedom Radio" was licensed in 2002 and commenced operation on December
1, 2003. It is owned by Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu, a member of the newly
formed opposition political party the Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD).
The station broadcasts in 10 languages, including major Nigerian languages
such as Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Kanuri, Ebira, Fufulde, Igala in addition to
English, French and Arabic. Its signals are received in the northern
Nigerian states of Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Kaduna, Plateau and Bauchi.
The NBC lifted the restrictions after about two weeks.
Mr. Farouk Dalhatu, executive director of the station disclosed that the
station received a letter from the NBC asking it to resume normal
broadcasting operations. Dalhatu added that though the station did not
pay the N200,000 fine imposed on it by the NBC, it was still calculating
the losses it incurred as a result of the restrictions |
