The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has suspended Channels Television and slammed the media house with a N5 million fine for interviewing a representative of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
The charges for breaching the broadcast code was made known in a letter to the Managing Director of Channels Television and signed by the Acting Director-General of NBC, Prof Armstrong Idachaba.
NBC made reference to Channels Television’s 7:00pm broadcast programme of Sunday, 25th of April, 2021 as reason for the suspension.
It accused the broadcast station of allowing a leader of IPOB to make secessionist and inciting statements on air with cautioning or reprimanding him.
The interview session, according to NBC is contrary to the country’s broadcast code.
The Commission further accused the station of allowing the guest speaker to make alleged derogatory and misleading statements about the Nigerian Army despite his group being proscribed by a court of law.
Reactions:
Femi Fani-Kayode@realFFK·It is wrong for NBC to sanction @channelstv simply because they allowed the spokesman of IPOB, Mr. Emma Powerful, to answer some pertinent and vital questions about the attack on the home of the Governor of Imo state. Censorship of the media is unacceptable in a democracy.
SERAP@SERAPNigeria· “BREAKING: We’ve urged President Buhari and the NBC to immediately lift the arbitrary, unconstitutional and illegal suspension and fine of @channelstv purportedly for breaching the broadcast code. We’ll take legal action if the decision is not reversed within 48 hours.
“The Acting Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, Professor Armstrong Idachaba reportedly accused the TV station of interviewing a leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) allegedly without “caution or reprimand.”
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