Desmond Mgboh, Kano and Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), yesterday, launched the sixth edition of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code to tackle hate speech.
NBC Director General, Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, who was represented at the event in Kano, by NBC Secretary, Mujtaba Sada, said upon assumption of office in May 2016, it was clear to him that the Commission needed to work fast on a review of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.
Kawu further said the sixth edition of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code has been enriched at three levels.
He added that the NBC commissioned a major study of hate and dangerous speech in Nigeria, against the background of widespread abuse of the broadcasting standards, in the lead to the 2015 general election.
“Even then, NBC, as the broadcasting regulatory institution, became sucked into the vortex of the controversies of that era in our national history. We, therefore, felt that we needed to strengthen the position of the Code, in respect of hate and dangerous speech.
“Similarly, new controversies emerged around the nature of local content, and the definition of what was acceptable as local content.
“It was clear that the Nigeria Broadcasting Code needed to become strongly affirmative of the national aspiration to create and defend jobs in the creative industries within the Nigerian economy and that patriotic, affirmative aspiration has been reflected in the letters of the Sixth Nigeria Broadcasting Code.
“A final point of interest is related to the previous one, and that is in the manner that the Sixth Nigeria Broadcasting Code has also reflected the conviction that our sports in general ought to get the advertising funding support that matches a reasonable percentage of the huge amount of advertising spend that supports foreign sporting activities.
“It is therefore, my pleasure to present the Sixth Nigeria Broadcasting Code to our industry. This is the document that will guide our work over the next couple of years. The Code is not an imposition by the regulator on the licensees. This is a document that the industry worked on collectively and it is a product of very exacting professional application.
“I implore our colleagues to work the straight and narrow path of professionalism, which the Code prescribes. That is the only way that we can have a Nigeria broadcasting industry, which would reflect the very best of our dear country,” Kawu also said.
Kawu added that the background of the 2015 elections, which saw the democratic transfer of power from an incumbent government to the opposition, for the first time in Nigeria, exposed problems which the application of the Fifth Edition of the Code had not sufficiently captured.
He further added that there was also the fact that very important tentative steps had been taken on the route of the Digital Switch Over (DSO), with the launch of a pilot phase of the historic project in Jos in April, 2016, and subsequent launches in Abuja, Ilorin, Kaduna, Enugu and Oshogbo; up to February 2018.
“We are preparing launches in other locations around the country, as well as preparing the definitive commencement of Analogue Switch Off (ASO), with the launch of the DSO, in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and several other locations in the nearest future.
“Our preparatory work for the sixth edition of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code became one of the first major assignments of my tenure as director general of the NBC.
“So, after the normal preparatory internal work, which was done by the Directorate of Broadcast Policy and Research of the NBC, we gathered at the retreat in Kaduna on August 9, 2016, for the first level of review work on the Sixth Edition of the Code…”