Hate Speech: Nigerians Condemns N5m Fine Imposed On Radio Station By NBC
Many Nigerians and nongovernmental organisations reacted with anger Thursday after the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) imposed a fine on a radio station for conducting an interview the government considers “inciting”.
The regulatory body
said it fined the channel, Nigeria Info 99.3FM, N5 million for “providing its
platform to be used to promote unverifiable and inciting views that can incite
crime, public disorder.”
While announcing the
penalty earlier today, NBC had cited the alleged unprofessional conduct of
media house in the handling of the programme, “Morning Cross Fire”, aired on
Monday between 8.30am and 9.00am.
A former deputy
governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Obadiah Mailafia, had while speaking
during the programme alleged that a northern state governor is a commander of
the terror group, Boko Haram.
“Dr Mailafia
Obadia’s comments on the ‘Southern Kaduna Crisis’ were devoid of facts and by
broadcasting same to the public, Nigeria Info 99.3FM, is in violation of the
following sections of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code: 3.1.1 No broadcast shall
encourage or incite to crime, lead to public disorder or hate, be repugnant to
public feelings or contain offensive reference to any person or organisation,
alive or dead or generally be disrespectful to human dignity,” the statement
read.
Under the new code,
the commission has also threatened sanctions on media houses for allowing their
platforms to be used for “insulting” public officials, Vanguard reported.
The code, since its
amendment, has stirred controversy with many Nigerians kicking against its
provisions. Many view the move as a backdoor attempt to clamp down on free
speech, dissent and the media.
The National
Broadcasting Commission board has however distanced itself from the ammendment
of the code, insisting it was ‘erroneously’ done by the Minister of
Information, Lai Mohammed.
Reaction
Former vice
president, Atiku Abubakar, said the fine on Nigeria Info radio was a “threat to
an evolving democracy like Nigeria’s.”
“While there is no
disputation over the fact that hate speech portends an existential threat to
the enterprise of journalistic reporting and, in fact, inhibits the workings
for a free society, it is absolutely repugnant that powers that be would
instrumentalize the prevention of hate speech as a means of constricting free
speech,” Mr Abubakar’s media office said in a statement Thursday.
“It is globally
acknowledged that one of the core functions of the mass media is to inform the
society on all ranges of issues, not even to the exclusion of national security
issues. The mass media has a role to play in ensuring that all possible shades
of opinions are given access to the media platform.
“In many advanced
democracies the world over, criminals on even wanted lists of law enforcement
agencies have reached out to the media to express their opinions about the
crimes that they had perpetrated and the media space was not denied to them.
“As a matter of
fact, it seems somewhat contradictory that a country like ours, which is in the
throes of national security skirmishes, would choose to shrink media access to
critical information . It is not known if any society had won the war against
terrorism by placing a restriction to access to information, in the way the NBC
had done.”
The statement also
disagreed with the argument of the NBC that the interview that the station had
with Mr Mailafia constituted any infringement.
“Whether or not what
Dr. Mailafia said on the radio station was a false claim, it is outside of the
objectives of a responsible regulatory framework to sanction a radio station
for a comment an individual made, more so that the personality in question, Dr.
Obadiah, had been quizzed and released by law enforcement agents,” the
statement partly read.
The statement said
if for any reason the authorities were not satisfied with his explanations,
they are at liberty to prosecute him in court, but not to make a scapegoat of
the media platform that provides opportunities for citizens to ventilate their
views.
“We, therefore, call
on the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to cause a review of the hate
speech prohibition code because the very interpretation of same is offensive to
the notion of free speech which is an essential ingredient of participatory
democracy that Nigeria operates,” it said.
It also demanded the
fine on the radio station be quashed.
Similarly, the
International Press Centre (IPC) expressed dismay over the imposition of the
fine.
The executive
director of IPC, Lanre Arogundade, said the NBC gave the impression that it was
the radio station that put the words in the mouth of the guest and went on to
impose a fine without any evidence whatsoever that the alleged statement had
degraded any person or groups of persons, which would have amounted to hate
speech.
“Even if a case of
hate speech can be established, it is totally out of place in a democratic
setting that NBC would be the one to accuse, prosecute and judge its own case
against the station,” Mr. Arogundade said.
The group said the
hefty fine represented an assault on media independence, freedom of expression
and the right of citizens to know about issues of public interest.
Mr. Arogundade
demanded the immediate reversal of the decision saying that was the only path
of honour left for the NBC to follow having embarrassed itself with the
unreasonable fine against the radio station.
The Socio-Economic
Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), in its statement of Thursday, urged
President Buhari to caution the NBC to refrain from threatening Nigerians with
punishment if they insult Publix officials.
The group threatened
legal action if the commission fails to comply.
“We’ll see in court
if the NBC continues to undermine Nigerians’ human rights. Nigerian authorities
should stop using “insult” as a pretext to stifle freedom of expression, and as
a tool of repression,” it said.
“The ‘crime’ of
insult is entirely inconsistent and incompatible with the Nigerian
Constitution, 1999 (as amended), and international human rights law.”
Several Nigerians
also aired their opinion on Twitter, protesting the fine.
According to
@ayemojubar, “They want citizens to respect them as elders but why would Lai
Mohammed and NBC fine NigeriaInfo FM N5m because they granted Obadiah Mailaifa
an interview. See the consequence of giving power to wicked souls.”
@OJEZS wrote:
“NigeriainfoFM should sue Lai Mohammed and NBC to court; there’s nothing wrong
for @NigeriaInfoPH to grant Obadiah Mailaifa an interview. They should go to
court to challenge the FG for that 5MN fine.”
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