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Stakeholders Advocate
for the Enactment of Community Radio Legislation
Community radio stakeholders have called on
government to review relevant policy documents and laws in order to
create an enabling legal environment for the establishment and operation
of community radio in Nigeria.
The Institute for Media and Society (IMS) in
collaboration with Panos Institute West Africa (PIWA) held a two-day
Evaluation and Strategic Planning Seminar with the theme “Building the
Community Radio Sector in Nigeria” on February 19 and 20, 2008. It was
held within the framework of the series of activities being undertaken
by the Initiative on Building Community Radio in Nigeria. The seminar
took place at the Chida International Hotel, Abuja in the Federal
Capital Territory of Nigeria.
Participants at the seminar expressed
concerns that Government was yet to
take concrete steps towards the realization of community radio operation
in Nigeria in spite of recognizing its importance to the education
sector; noting that only nine (9) licenses have so far been issued to
the hundreds of universities, polytechnics, mono-techniques and colleges
of Education in Nigeria when some universities and polytechnics in
neighbouring Ghana have more than one station on their campuses.
At the end of the Seminar, they adopted a
communiqué which among other things called on the federal government to
deploy and implement the Policy document on Community Radio developed by
the last administration to pave way for the enactment of necessary
legislation by government as may be desirable.
Participants regretted that in the over 70
years of radio broadcasting in Nigeria, there has been no policy, legal
and regulatory framework for Community radio adding that that Nigeria
remains the only country in the West African sub region that has not
opened its doors to a full regime of community radio broadcasting.
They also noted that all the initiatives by
government and efforts of the Community Radio Coalition have not yielded
the desired result that could engender a favourable Community Radio
environment in Nigeria due to challenges of continuity arising from
administrative succession and lethargy in the making of laws and
deployment of policies that impinge on community radio in Nigeria.
In addition they also asked government to
release without further delay the reviewed National Mass Communication
Policy and to revisit as a matter of urgency the stalled amendment of
the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Act and other legislation,
such as the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) Act and News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Act with the full participation of stakeholders
in the review of the legislation before their re-introduction for
amendment and expected passage by the National Assembly.
Participants also urged that the NBC Act and
other legislation, upon amendment, include provisions which would give
the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) full regulatory powers over
the broadcast sector, including final approval authority to issue
broadcasting licenses.
They also demanded that all policy,
legislative and regulatory reforms in the media/information sector
should be in adherence to the principles and provisions of the African
Charter on Broadcasting; Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill passed by the
last National Assembly, but not assented to by the former President,
should be speedily passed by the current National Assembly and assented
to by the President.; and that Government should accentuate the role of
CR in socio-economic development including education, health, conflict
prevention/conflict resolution and peace building, etc.
The participants also called on the Media to
assume its rightful position as a major stakeholder in the community
radio initiative and help drive the process by providing appropriate
information and education to all sections of the Nigerian society on the
benefits of CR and the present challenges confronting its emergence in
Nigeria. They said the media should also intensify the campaign to see
the FOI Bill through its final stage of assent by Mr. President.
It
called on all CR Stakeholders
to step up advocacy work to mobilize constituencies critical to the
enactment and enforcement of all relevant laws, and adoption and
implementation of policies for the establishment and operation of CR in
Nigeria; encourage the establishment of pilot stations in the different
geo-political zones of the country to galvanize the rapid development of
the community radio sub-sector in Nigeria; and mobilize resources to
produce and distribute in larger quantities IEC materials on various
aspects of CR.
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