The National Broadcasting Commission(NBC) has fined the management of Trust Media Group the sum of five million naira over a documentary on banditry.
The fine was disclosed in a letter signed by the Director-General of the NBC, Balarabe Shehu Illela on Wednesday.
Recall that the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai muhammed, had earlier vowed to penalize both Trust TV and the BBC for “advocating banditry in the country.”
However, in the letter, the NBC stated that it fined the trust TV because its documentary “contravened sections of the national broadcasting code.”
Reacting to the sanction in a statement, the management of the Trust Media Group said “While we are currently studying the Commission’s action and weighing our options, we wish to state unequivocally that as a television station, we believe we were acting in the public interest by shedding light on the thorny issue of banditry and how it is affecting millions of citizens of our country.
“The documentary traces the root of the communal tensions and systemic inadequacies which led to the armed conflict that is setting the stage for another grand humanitarian crisis in Nigeria.
“It presents insights into the intersection of injustice, ethnicity and bad governance as drivers of the conflict. It also aggregates voices of experts and key actors towards finding solutions, including those of the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Senator Saidu Mohammed Dansadau, who hails from one the worst hit communities in Zamfara State,” the statement read in part.
