FG Seeks To Regulate Internet Broadcasting, Social Media

The Federal Government on Wednesday asked the House of Representatives to include inter­net broadcasting under the con­trol of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

The request was contained in the submission of Minister of In­formation and Culture, Lai Mo­hammed, at the public hearing into a bill to amend the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission Act organised by the House Committees on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values. ­

The minister said all online and internet broad­casting entities should be included in section 2 (c) of the bill.

Mohammed, who seemed very comfortable with the present powers of the NBC, said he came with mainly two items of concerns: to prevent the NBC from being made to remit to Treasury Single Account (TSA) and to se­cure the control over Inter­net broadcasting and on­line media in the proposed amendment.

He said very soon, the NBC would join league of agencies of government that does not depend on Fed­eral Government for sala­ries and other projects, in view of their revenue gen­erating capacity.

“It will be a drawback if NBC is allowed to remit everything into the TSA,” the minister stated.

Mohammed further told the committee that Internet broadcasting and online media should be included in the NBC law for proper monitoring of contents just like it is currently done to television, radio stations, cables and satellite.

His submission did not go down well with other stakeholders, who already felt that the commission was not independent, but was used as a political tool to witch-hunt those op­posed to government.

Akin Akinbolu, Execu­tive Secretary of Institute for Media and Society (IMS), frowned at the pres­ent situation where the NBC was used as a “post office”, merely to receive applications, but could not decide on anything, as the minister of information had total control over all processes in the commis­sion.

He asked that the amend­ment should remove pow­ers of the NBC from the minister and president, and vest them in the NBC board and National Assem­bly.

All other speakers were of the opinion that the NBC should have nation­al commissioners and the director-general who must reflect all interests in the industry, whose ap­pointments by the presi­dent must be subjected to screening and confirma­tion by the National As­sembly.

The International Press Centre (IPC), in its submis­sion, also supported the total independence of the commission, asking that the NBC budget should be on first line charge.

Stakeholders also re­jected the current situa­tion where broadcasting houses were walking tight robe to seek justice in court against the NBC, asking that the 30 days’ no­tice to the commission be expunged to allow free ac­cess to court by aggrieved parties.

The Broadcasting Or­ganisation of Nigeria (BON) insisted that the NBC as it stood today, was the accuser and judge in its own matters, insisting that stakeholders must be given the opportunity under the amendment, to challenge the sanctions meted out by the NBC or even secure in­junctions against the com­mission.

It was also submitted that seeking to regulate the Internet broadcasting and online media were attempts by the government to hinder free speech and suppress the people’s views which were undemocratic.