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Newspapers Proprietors
Tango in Court with Broadcasters
The Newspapers Proprietors Association of
Nigeria (NPAN) on February 19, 2008 brought a motion before the Federal
High Court in Lagos presided over by Justice Abubakar Mustapha seeking
to join more broadcasting organizations in the pending suit it initially
filed in 2001 challenging broadcast stations which broadcast daily
review of the contents of newspapers and magazines. The Association
expressed its unhappiness with the continued violation of its patent
rights by the electronic media which read the contents of their
publications to the public. This practice, they said affects the sales
of newspapers.
Eleven members of the NPAN had filed a suit
in 2001 urging the court to restrain the electronic media from
broadcasting either on radio or the television, the content of
newspapers and magazines without a prior licence, authority or
permission from the publishers. They asked the court to declare that the
daily broadcast of newspaper review by the electronic media without
permission from newspaper publishers is an infringement of their
copyright and to compel the defendants to pay the sum of N1bn for
profits from the broadcast of the content of the newspapers/magazines.
Justice Abdullahi Mustapha fixed March 31,
2008 for further hearing in the suit though neither the defendants nor
their legal counsels were in court.
Those who instituted the case include Punch
Nigeria Limited, Vanguard Media Ltd, Guardian Newspapers Ltd, Leaders
and Company Ltd, and African Newspapers of Nigeria Plc, while the
defendants in the suit include Murhi International (Nig) Ltd, Channels
Incorporated Ltd, Daar Communications Ltd, Desmins Broadcast Nig. Ltd,
DTV, Kaduna; and Galaxy Pictures Ltd.
The NPAN executives in court included Chief
Ajibola Ogunshola, the president of NPAN and Chairman of Punch Nigeria
Limited; Mr. Sam Amuka-Pemu, Publisher of Vanguard Newspapers; Ms
Comfort Obi, Publisher of the Source magazine and General Secretary of
NPAN; and Mr. Ray Ekpu, Chief Executive Officer, Newswatch Magazine.
NPAN, in the motion brought to the court by
Nojim Tairu of Tayo Oyetibo chambers, prayed the court to accept the
inclusion of the new offenders in the suit. Tairu explained that it had
become necessary to join other offending electronic media organisations
because they seemed to be enjoying the continued copyright infringement
on newspaper publications, possibly because they were not mentioned in
the earlier suit.
In an interview with the duo of Ayode Longe
and Joseph Izibili of ‘Media Rights Monitor’, Ms. Comfort Obi,
General Secretary of NPAN and Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of ‘The Source’
magazine disclosed that the actions of the broadcast organizations are
manifold. The review of the print titles are sponsored, they read the
whole content of the main stories and thereby discourage the public from
buying the newspapers and magazines.
She said the NPAN had met with them and urged
them to read only the headlines, the riders and then teasers that will
attract them to buy, as it is done in other climes but they have not
heeded the call. She said the practice worsens the unfriendly economic
environment in which the print media operate including high overhead
costs, different taxes, including VAT on adverts and dwindling sales.
She however said if the broadcast stations
are ready to agree to their terms, the NPAN would withdraw the matter
from the court.
Click here to
read excerpts of the interview with Ms. Comfort Obi
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