The Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Thursday read out riot act to broadcast stations in the country.
Broadcast political campaigns and hate speeches and face the full weight of the law, the Director General of the Commission, Mallam Ishaq Modibbo Kawu said.
He noted that it is wrong and also against the ethics of the profession to broadcast campaign messages or programmes when the lid was yet to be lifted.
Kawu who spoke while briefing Journalists on the update of Digital Switch Over (DSO) in the country also revealed that NBC is going to begin a phased Analogue Switch Off (ASO), in Plateau state and the FCT, by the end of the First Quarter of 2018.
The NBC boss warned that media stations must do everything professional to promote democracy in the country.
He said, “Permit me my dear colleagues, to also take your time to remind our broadcasters, that as we approach the electioneering period, stations must do everything professional to promote democracy. Broadcasters are reminded that they have a duty to respect all extant laws related to the reportage and coverage of the electoral process. Don’t broadcast campaigns when the period for commencement of campaigns have not commenced.”
On inciting messages, the NBC boss also warned against deliberate airing of inciting contents, which are capable of inciting the people against each other.
“We are disturbed by the pattern of insensitive and inflammatory broadcasts emanating from some broadcast stations, especially in their coverage of national crises, like the Herdsmen/Farmer crises.
Just Thursday, we released the sanctions profile for Nigerian broadcast stations for the 4th quarter of 2017. Many stations have been fined for hateful and inciting broadcast. (The list is already on our website). It is important to remind our presenters and so-called On-Air-Personalities (OAPs), that they must be professionally detached from the stories and reports of crises phenomena. They are to offer platforms for Nigerians to present all the sides to issues in the news, not become the subjects of these stories, as they are wont to doing on many programs. This is especially true of political programs on broadcast stations.
“We have observed that some stations deliberately and repeatedly air very inciting contents long after the events break. We have warned stations that they must follow the tenets of the Broadcasting Code. Having warned broadcasters, we shall follow up with appropriate sanctions should any station continue to violate the Broadcasting Code,” he warned.
Already, he said the commission is planning a national conference on “politics and hate speech, during which we hope to present the study we commissioned on Hate Speech”.
Kawu also revealed that the commission has submitted a long list of new radio and television stations to President Muhammad’s Buhari, for presidential assent.
“ The President has always been encouraging the NBC to open up accesses for Nigerians to be able to register newer radio and television stations, because of his belief that they help to deepen democratic discourse, while also helping to create new jobs through the broadcasting value chain” he said.
NBC, he also said has informed the pay DTT operators, GOTV and NTA/STAR TIMES, to begin discussions with the two signal distributors, ITS and Pinnacle Communications.
“This is because, in line with the Government White Paper on the Transition from Analogue to Digital Broadcasting, after June 2019, these pay DTT operators would no longer be licensed to operate as both content providers and signal distributors,” he explained.
On DSO, Kawu said that by the end of the third quarter of 2018, 12 states would have been hooked up to the digital viewing.
He noted that so far the digital switch over has been launched in three states, Plateau, Kaduna, Kwara and the Federal Capital Territory.
The commission, he said is “committed to roll out in many more states this year” with Enugu, and Osun on the line to join the list of states in couple of weeks.
He said, “We have already scheduled Monday the 12th of February 2018 for the switch on for Enugu state. Similarly February 23rd has been affirmed for the switch on in Osun state.”
NBC boss also revealed that “our second national signal distributor, Pinnacle Communications Limited, have moved to site in Delta state, and are also packed up for work in Gombe state.”
He further added, “We have also scheduled to switch on six more states, one each from the six geo-political regions, during this year, 2018. We envisage that by the end of the third quarter of 2018, we would have switched on in 12 states around Nigeria. We are steadily implementing this new digital broadcasting process.”
“Similarly, we are going to also begin a phased Analogue Switch Off (ASO), in Plateau state and the FCT, by the end of the First Quarter of 2018. And as part of acceleration of the work, we have commenced the digital mapping of Nigeria. It is a process that would help to give clarity to the entire DSO process.”
The full roll out, he however said was subject to achieving about 95 per cent coverage.
On the challenge of funds, Kawu agreed that it would be proper to seek funds from other sources outside the budget, if the country must actualize its dream of digital switchover.
He noted that the commission is open to the idea of leasing frequencies that are idle to raise fund. This idea he said would be laid before the government.
He stressed that the fund utilized so far for the digital switchover was from the N3.4billion proceeds from one of the frequency lease.
