Henceforth, offenders of hate speeches, inciting comments and indecency in the country are to pay N5 million fine no longer N500,000.
This follows the approval of review of the National Broadcasting Code and extant broadcasting laws by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed stated this on Thursday in Abuja while inaugurating the National Broadcasting Commission Reform Implementation Committee.
Mohammed said stiffer penalties await violators of broadcasting regulations as the President has endorsed the implementation of reforms to end all forms of monopoly detrimental to the actualisation of the immense potential of the broadcast industry.
He said the President also approved that wilful repeat of infractions on three occasions after levying fine on a station should attract suspension of license.
The minister said Buhari also approved the upgrade of breach of political comments relating to hate speeches and divisive comments to “Class A” offence in the Broadcasting Code.
Other approvals by the President according to the minister are “Amendment of the NBC Act to enable NBC licence WebTv and radio stations, including foreign broadcasters beam signals into Nigeria.
“Recruitment of more monitoring staff for the NBC. At the moment, there are only about 200 staff monitoring about 1,000 radio and television stations.
“Deployment of adequate monitoring equipment and technologies for the NBC and enhancement of welfare packages of NBC staff to avoid their being compromised in the line of duty’.
The President, according to the minister, said that the reviewed code must also ensure the Independence of the NBC from political interference in the exercise of its regulatory powers, particularly with respect to the issuance and withdrawal of broadcasting licence.
Mohammed said the decisions were a sequel to the deliberations at the Federal Executive Council meeting of March 27, on the unprofessional and unethical conduct of some broadcast stations, especially before and during the last general elections.
“The President directed me to institute an inquiry into the conduct of the stations and report back to the Council
“Consequently, I inaugurated a five-member committee on Wednesday, April 10th 2019 with the following terms of reference:
“To find out to what extent the NBC was able to effectively carry out its regulatory role before and during the 2019 general elections.
“Recommend measures that could strengthen NBC’s regulatory role and make it more effective.
“The committee submitted its report on April 24th 2019, with 26 recommendations, and I subsequently forwarded the report to Mr. President, who has since approved them,” he said.
The minister, therefore, charged the reform implementation committee to carry out a thorough job that will reposition the NBC as effective and efficient regulator.
(NAN)
