Thursday, July 10, 2025
  • REPORT A STORY
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • CONTACT
WITHIN NIGERIA
  • HOME
  • FEATURES
  • NEWS
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • FACT CHECK
  • MORE
    • VIDEOS
    • GIST
    • PIECE (ARTICLES)
No Result
View All Result
WITHIN NIGERIA
  • HOME
  • FEATURES
  • NEWS
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • FACT CHECK
  • MORE
    • VIDEOS
    • GIST
    • PIECE (ARTICLES)
No Result
View All Result
WITHIN NIGERIA
No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • FEATURES
  • NEWS
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • FACT CHECK
  • MORE

Mailafia: Atiku slams NBC for fining Nigeria Info N5m

by Davies Ngere Ify
August 14, 2020
in National
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A
0
COVID-19: Atiku Disassociates Self From Online Platform Offering Aid
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President, has attacked the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission, NBC, for fining 99.3 FM Nigeria Info N5 million over an interview it granted former Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN chief, Dr Obadiah Mailafia.

Mailafia had said during the interview that a serving governor in the north is the financial of Boko Haram.

Atiku, in a statement said he was compelled to react to the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission code concerning infringement on hate speech and the operational style that media houses should employ to conform with the new regulation.

He said while there was no disputation over the fact that hate speech portended an existential threat to the enterprise of journalistic reporting and, in fact, inhibited the workings for a free society, it was absolutely repugnant that powers that be would instrumentalise the prevention of hate speech as a means of constricting free speech.

READ ALSO

Democracy Day Turns Protest Day: Nigerians decry hardship, ask Tinubu to fix economy

INTERVIEW: My Reason For Writing “A COUNTRY IN TEARS”—Enugu-based writer explains

OSINACHI: Refusal of governors to sign death sentence makes justice blurry in Nigeria

SPECIAL REPORT: Inside Story Of How Banks, ATM Charges Worsen Nigerians’ Economic Woes

TRIBUTE: Doyin Okupe: Son Of Banker Who Laced Medical Profession, Journalism, Politics With Great Efficiency

Atiku said it was globally acknowledged that one of the core functions of the mass media was 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.

“In a particular reference to the penalty handed down to the operators of 99.3 FM Nigeria Info, we disagree wholeheartedly with the argument of the NBC that the interview that the station had with Dr Obadiah Mailafia constitutes any infringement or if at all it exposes the station to trading in hate speech.

“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,” he said.

Atiku stated that if for any reason the authorities were not satisfied with his explanations, they were at liberty to prosecute him in court, but not to make a scapegoat of the media platform that provided opportunities for citizens to ventilate their views.

He said the claim by the management of NBC that “this (the penalty) is expected to serve as a deterrent to all other broadcast stations in Nigeria who were quick to provide platform for subversive rhetoric and expositions of spurious and unverifiable claims, to desist from such”, was a naked attempt to gag the media in Nigeria.

“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.

“We also demand of the NBC to drop the penalty against the operators of 99.3 Nigeria Info FM on account of the fact that the penalty is at best ill-thought out.

“Lastly, we want to refresh the memories of the generality of Nigerians that the Nigerian media has been in the frontline of the vanguard in the fight against military rule and restoration of a democratic order. In other words, it is very disappointing that under the watch of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the media is, yet again, being targeted for extermination,” he said.

RELATED STORYPosts

National

Democracy Day Turns Protest Day: Nigerians decry hardship, ask Tinubu to fix economy

by Sodiq Lawal Chocomilo
June 13, 2025
National

INTERVIEW: My Reason For Writing “A COUNTRY IN TEARS”—Enugu-based writer explains

by Nnadi Christopher Ikechukwu
May 27, 2025

Discussion about this post

POPULAR THIS WEEK

No Content Available
No Content Available
WITHIN NIGERIA

WITHIN NIGERIA MEDIA LTD.

NEWS, MULTI MEDIA

WITHIN NIGERIA is an online news media that focuses on authoritative reports, investigations and major headlines that springs from National issues, Politics, Metro, Entertainment; and Articles.

Follow us on social media:

CORPORATE LINKS

  • About
  • Contacts
  • Report a story
  • Advertisement
  • Content Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
 
  • Fact-Checking Policy
  • Ethics Policy
  • Corrections Policy
  • WHO IS WITHIN NIGERIA?
  • CONTACT US
  • PRIVACY
  • TERMS

© 2022 WITHIN NIGERIA MEDIA LTD. designed by WebAndName

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • FEATURES
  • NEWS
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • FACT CHECK
  • MORE
    • VIDEOS
    • GIST
    • PIECE (ARTICLES)

© 2022 WITHIN NIGERIA MEDIA LTD. designed by WebAndName