NBC slams N2m fine on two broadcast stations

The National Broadcasting Commission has imposed two million Naira fines each on Continental Broadcasting Services Limited, operators of Television Continental (TVC) and Arise TV for breaching ethical codes.

While the hammer of the NBC fell on TVC for airing “hate speech and inflammatory comments”, the commission accused Arise TV of unfair mockery of the presidential candidate of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

In a letter signed by the Commission’s Director-General, Balarabe Ilelah on Friday, it directed affected stations to pay the N2 million fine within two weeks of receiving the letter.

The Commission said it observed TVC’s “consistent” breach of the Nigeria broadcasting code concerning the coverage of activities for the general election.

It accused TVC of airing hate speech, inflammatory, derogatory and unfair comments, a trend the Commission said had become a house style on TVC.

The Commission mentioned references to a media briefing by Festus Keyamo, one of the spokespersons of the governing APC Presidential Campaign Council, and comments by the presidential candidate of the party.

The NBC said Arise TV erred for airing the presidential campaign rally of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which held in Delta State, stressing that it was replete with unfair mockery of the APC presidential candidate by Dino Melaye, an opposition campaign spokesperson.

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The letter read in part, “On 06/01/23 at 12:29PM, the Joint Media Directorate of the APC Presidential Campaign Council made the following comments while briefing the media. Festus Keyamo: ‘…Obasanjo and Atiku run a criminal enterprise, an empire of fraud in Abuja. At the same time that Ahmed Bola Asiwaju was toiling hard, beautifully and meticulously to rebuild Lagos, 2 criminals were stealing money in Abuja at the time… they both stole from the SPV account at that time.”’

It also said, “On 24/01/23 at 03:39 PM, during the APC Presidential campaign in Abia State, the APC Presidential Candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu after telling the public to vote APC under the symbol of broom, he went on to make the following comment ‘…You know what you do with the rest of them? They are like lizards, cockroaches and mosquitoes. Just take the broom, wipe them off.”’