Matters arising By Simon Kolawole – TheNigerialawyer

It started like a little rumour weeks ago that the
National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) was planning to descend on
the African Independent Television (AIT) and Raypower FM, owned by
Daar Communications Plc, for allegedly violating the broadcasting
code. Its founder, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, is a prominent member of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the major opposition party, and
is currently facing trial over allegations of money laundering. He
was also recently questioned by officials of the Nigeria
Immigration Service (NIS) after returning from a foreign medical
trip. No reason was given by NIS beyond “we have the power to
interrogate under the law”.

Not long after that, the FCT administration bulldozed an
“illegal structure” within the company’s Abuja premises. According
to the official explanation, the fence was encroaching on other
people’s lands. Devoid of deeper interrogation, the bulldozing can
easily be described as a routine attempt to enforce physical
planning laws and restore sanity to the nation’s capital. Nigerians
daily pray for a responsible government that listens to the cries
of the people and swiftly does justice, so shouldn’t they be happy
that the FCT acted decisively in this case? They should, just that
things are not always the way they seem when politics enters the
mix.

When Dokpesi raised the alarm that NBC was coming for AIT, it
was not entirely weird. NBC listed a series of infractions which it
said it had taken up with the management but which were not
addressed. The alleged infractions were not just about law but also
about ethics. The NBC gave an instance of when a tweet that was
read on air apparently referred to President Muhammadu Buhari as
“lifeless” and which the programme presenter, reportedly, merely
laughed off. The commission, in strong-worded letters, said the
constant use of “inflammatory and divisive rhetoric” and “blatant
disregard for broadcast rules” had become unacceptable.

In the end, the regulator brought down the hammer on AIT and
Raypower, with collateral damage on Daarsat and Faaji FM. A court
subsequently ordered that “status quo ante” be maintained, a ruling
that effectively put the suspension of Daar Communications Plc’s
licences on hold until the substantive suit it brought against the
NBC is decided. I would say this was a fair intervention in the
crisis — which had seen the regulator come under heavy public
bashing. Many commentators have expectedly read political
persecution to NBC’s action. Some have expressed fears and worries
that this may just be the beginning of a broader clampdown on press
freedom in Nigeria.

As a journalist, I am naturally inclined to defend AIT/Raypower
— in defence of press freedom. That is my default position. I would
naturally say that what happened to AIT can happen to any other
media outfit in the country. Nobody should rejoice that it happened
to AIT. I started my journalism career under the military
government of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and I know how one media house
after the other fell under state clampdown. Those who thought they
were safe fell victim in different ways and at different times.
Therefore, injury to one, I would add, is injury to all. It is thus
the collective responsibility of Nigerians to defend our freedoms
and liberties.

That said, though, there are several matters that have been
thrown up by the NBC/Daar Communications issue that must not be
lost on us in the heat of the moment. One, the broadcast industry
is the most regulated in the media sector in the country. A
newspaper, either printed or digital, can call someone “lifeless”
and the best they can do is file a libel suit, but a TV/ radio
station can be shut down for committing the same “offence”? Why
can’t the offended party also be asked to file a suit in court
rather than the NBC withdrawing the broadcast licence? If you ask
me, that is one of the issues we should be debating when the dust
has settled.

Two, why is the broadcast industry so tightly regulated such
that the president has to personally sign the operating licence?
The broadcast laws clearly tilt the balance of power in favour of
the government. Why is this so? I am inclined to think that this
law is a relic from our militarised past, given the role radio and
TV broadcasts played in coup d’etat in our history. I think the
military tried to keep things tight for the sake of regime
security. In fact, it was not until Babangida became president that
private ownership of electronic media was allowed by government.
Guess the first private radio station to go on air? Raypower.

Three, how can we get the media to be more responsible and
professional in their business so that we would not need an NBC to
lecture us on laws and ethics? Again, this has been the elephant in
the room for decades. Gate-keeping is a major issue in Nigerian
media. There is a Nigerian Press Council (NPC) that is supposed to
be the court for matters relating to the conduct of the media in
Nigeria — the same way the Medical and Dental Council handles
matters of professional conduct among doctors and dentists.
However, the NPC has either been inefficient or frustrated by
journalists. It is as if it does not exist at all. This inevitably
makes the media vulnerable to regulatory intrusion.

Now, we need to get something very clear: the NBC has not
committed any sin by enforcing the broadcasting code. AIT and
Raypower were issued licences with rules and regulations. NBC has a
job to do — to enforce the code. And if it is true that the
regulator engaged several times with the management of Daar over
the alleged infractions, we should not expect that it should fold
its arms and not do anything. Whether or not we like it, this is
the law and we cannot be complaining about weak institutions on the
one hand and at the same time complaining about the ones that are
trying to do the right thing. No matter our misgivings and anger,
we should not lose sight of this fact.

However, having said that, we now need to ask critical questions
in order not to waste this golden opportunity. To what extent
should the NBC regulate media contents in a democracy that
guarantees free speech and press freedom? Is it acceptable in a
democracy that a government agency should be allowed to define how
long a political commercial should last? Why should a newspaper be
able run an unlimited volume of political advertising but a TV
station cannot? What sense does that make, for all intents and
purposes? We inherited a terrible code and we decided to live with
it rather than challenge it.

Let us even concede that because the government owns and
allocates the frequencies, it has a right to determine the rules
and should be able to withdraw the operating licences if these
rules are not obeyed. Fair point. Still, in the interest of press
freedom and democracy, there should be an arbiter so that the
government does not become the accuser, prosecutor and judge in its
own case. More so, there should be certain infractions that the NBC
should deal with administratively. However, withdrawing a licence
is equal to pronouncing the death penalty and that should not be
the sole decision of the NBC. We need an umpire in this aspect, I
would suggest.

For me, the most amazing thing is that broadcasters have been
living with these laws for decades without questioning or
challenging them in court or proposing amendments to the national
assembly. This is amazing. They just simply accepted them as part
of the drill. This is an opportunity to seek a legislative review.
The review should be in a way that gives responsibilities and
protection to all parties: to the NBC, the duty to regulate
broadcasting without infringing on free speech; and to the media,
the right to free speech without shirking professional and ethical
requirements, particularly gate-keeping. No freedom is absolute
anywhere in the world.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

‘PECK AND GO’

A few days after meeting with President Buhari and subsequently
withdrawing from the race for senate presidency, Senator Danjuma
Goje can now breathe easy as the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) has withdrawn from the N25 billion fraud case
filed against him in 2011 when he left office as governor of Gombe
state. The case will be handled by the office of the
attorney-general of the federation (don’t laugh!) henceforth.
On-trial Senator Iyiola Omisore got his international passport back
after backing the APC in the Osun governorship election last year.
Senator Musiliu Obanikoro has benefited from similar deals since
joining the APC. Bonanza.

ZAMFARA PRIORITY

Alhaji Bello Matawalle, the governor of Zamfara, immediately set
ball rolling after his assumption of office on May 29 by outlining
his priority: building an airport in Gusau, the state capital. This
was partly inspired by the fact that when the air force wanted to
launch an operation against bandits in the state recently, there
was no airport for their jets to land. That is the way we roll in
Nigeria. There must be something about governors and airports
though, especially in states where people have no water to drink,
no drugs in hospitals and no shoes for children who want to go to
school, if there are schools at all. We always seem to be moving
from frying pan to fire. Exasperating.

TO ENI B

The obnoxious disease called cancer has claimed yet another life
with the death of Mrs Helen Eniola-Olaitan, wife of Eniola Bello,
the MD of THISDAY newspapers. Losing his wife of 23 years, one whom
he dated in his teenage years, would take time to deal with but our
prayers will continue to be with him and his children in this hour
of need. At some point, though, scientists will just have to find a
cure for this deadly disease that sneaks on human beings like a
thief in the night. Most cancers are diagnosed accidentally because
of the silent way it grows in the body without symptoms. By the
time it shows symptoms, it has probably reached the point of no
return. Brutal.

MYTH BUSTER

Were you deceived when someone posted this on social media
recently: “I was today (sic) years old when I found out that
Michael Jackson and Rihanna said ‘imma say one more time I’m not
gone stop’ and not ‘mama say mama sa mama coosa’…”? In fact, what
Jackson said was ‘mama-say mama-sa mama-ko-sa’ and it was a line he
lifted from Manu Dibango’s 1972 classic, ‘Makossa’. The Cameroonian
accused Jackson of copyright infringement and both of them later
settled out of court — only for Jackson to give Rihanna the
permission to use the line in her 2007 song, ‘Don’t Stop the
Music’. That one also ended in court. Don’t believe everything that
trends on Twitter. Unfollow.

Subscribe ToNairalaw News!