NBC Fines Media Outlets In Nigeria Over 716 Infractions

The Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) has said it has fined media outlets for violating some of its rules.

The commission made the announcement in its quarterly report, which was released on Wednesday.

The report examines the offences that NBC said the media committed between April and June 2020.

The report shows that of the 716 penalised media outlets, 22 (or three percent) were financial penalties.

He added that 694 media outlets (97 per cent) were either caution or warnings for obscenity, political, hate speech, unverifiable claims, unprofessionalism, advertisement and technical breaches.

“Advertisement breaches were the dominant infractions for the quarter accounting for 51 percent of all sanctions, followed by unverifiable claims to cure by tradomedics and preachers with 17 percent.

The NBC report added that unprofessionalism especially in presenting news and current affairs was the third dominant breach accounting for 12 percent of all infractions recorded.

According to the report, 22 media outlets were sanctioned in 19 months across Nigeria and fined between N250,000.00 and N300,000.00 each.

“Seven of these were for misinformation or false health advisory about Coronavirus (COVID-19). Stations penalized in this respect were Breeze FM, Lafia, Adaba FM Akure, Midland FM Ilorin, Royal FM Ilorin and Wave FM Port Harcourt.

“Ten stations were penalised for tradomedics’ claim to cure serious diseases or promotion of fortune telling, namely; Sobi FM, Ilorin; EBS Radio, Benin; City FM Onitsha; FRCN (Voice FM), Nsukka; King FM, Ibadan; Fad FM, Calabar; Wazobia Max TV Port Harcourt and Radio Rivers Port Harcourt. Penalised for endorsement of products or services by presenters were Wish FM Port Harcourt, Wazobia FM, Port Harcourt and People’s FM, Yenegoa.”

Some critics see the NBC as punishing some media outlets for reporting on the government, but a director at the agency, who did not want to be named, said that was not true.

According to him, even before the media was licensed, there were rules set for them and they were punished for violating these rules.