We fined 20 stations in Q2, 2019 for breaching provisions of Nigeria Broadcasting Code on hate speech – NBC

The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has fined 20 broadcasting stations and also cautioned producers of the reality television programme, Big Brother Naija (BBN) against broadcasting “unwholesome content” in the country.

The broadcast stations were fined for allegedly breaching NBC’s code.

Director-General of NBC, Mallam Ishaq Kawu disclosed this while addressing a news conference in Abuja.

He said the contraventions included breaches of the rules on hate speech, abusive, obscene and vulgar lyrics including inflammatory broadcast.

“Thus as many as 45 stations were fined, the second quarter indicates that the trend has continued among certain stations, especially in political programmes”.

“Therefore 20 stations were fined in the 2nd Quarter, for breaching provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code on hate speech.”

“Other breaches were in the area of obscene and vulgar lyrics- a total of 10 stations were fined for infractions related to use of vulgar lyrics and obscene content.

“It is worth mentioning that the program Big Brother Naija was cautioned against unwholesome content on its broadcast.”

NBC also expressed concern over the continuous flouting of the broadcasting code by DAAR Communications PLC, owners of African Independent Television (AIT) and Raypower F.M.

“The second quarter indicates that the trend has continued among certain stations especially in political programming. Our monitoring activities indicated that some stations especially AIT are deliberately meddling in the cases before the election tribunal”.

They, therefore, warned the affected stations against continuous breaching of NBC code, hence will be severely sanctioned.