Following what it termed as an “unprofessional coverage” of the #EndSARS protest and the crisis that followed it, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has fined African Independent Television (AIT), Channels Television, and Arise TV N3 million each, totally N9 million.
In addition to the N3 million fine on AIT, the broadcast industry regulator said it is considering seizing the station’s licence over a fake report that the National Ecumenical Centre was set ablaze.
The NBC acting Director General Prof Armstrong Idachaba who announced the sanction at a press conference in Abuja on Monday, said the three stations grossly breached the Nigeria Broadcasting Code in their coverage of the #EndSARS crisis by relying on unverified social media reports.
“Channels Television, Arise TV and AIT especially, continued to transmit footages obtained from unverified and unauthenticated social media sources. No doubt these pictures stimulated anger and heightened the violence that was witnessed during the crisis,” Prof Idachaba said.
He further noted that, in a hurry to break the news, the stations engaged in “unprofessional” attitude to relay information to their viewers, adding that their reports of the crisis were speculative and largely inaccurate.
According to him, monitoring reports available to the Commission indicate that indeed at the early stages of the conflict the broadcast industry largely gave a fair and balanced coverage to the issues, the trend became completely reversed when violence, wanton destruction and looting were added to the dimensions.
In his words, “The National Broadcasting Commission is concerned about the professional misdemeanour of some broadcasting stations in the past couple of days.”
“Perhaps in the eagerness to break news and be pacesetters, stations engaged in the very unprofessional attitude of speculative and unverifiable broadcast.
“We believe that the whole country has now seen why the spurious and recklessness on the Social Media must not be patronised by the mainstream traditional media. Broadcasters who therefore dogmatically patronise the Social Media must bury their heads in shame,” he also said.
He further noted that Nigerians are at the stage of their nation’s history, when broadcasters have a crucial responsibility for responsive and professional broadcasting, adding, that by picking unverified, unsubstantiated social media sources and repeating the narratives, Nigerian broadcasters have shown crass lack of professionalism and a disposition to be escalators of conflict and more seriously a threat to Nigeria.
“In line with the provisions of section 5.6.9 of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code which states that; ‘the broadcaster shall be held liable for any breach of the Code emanation from the use of material from User Generated Sources’, the Commission has therefore sanctioned Arise TV, Channels TV and AIT in line with the provisions of the broadcasting Code. This is to serve as deterrent to broadcasters who deliberately ignore to verify stories before they broadcast,” the acting DG said.
The commission called on broadcasters to always ensure that when they use UGC and Social media Sources, they must ensure their veracity and authenticity.
Meanwhile, the Commission has also condemned the assault and intimidation of media houses.
“The burning of TVC Lagos, the brief closure of Channels TV Lagos are all worrisome indicators of mob treat to the freedom of the press. No nation can grow when the citizens muzzle and intimidate its press,” he concluded.
Source: Daily Trust
