Say no to anti-freedom of speech, say no anti-media law
There is today an ominous cloud hanging over media freedom in Nigeria. This threat against free speech is in the form of an executive bill to amend the Nigerian Press Council and Nigerian Broadcasting Commission Acts. It is entitled “AN act to amend the Nigerian Press Council Act Cap N128, laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1992 to remove bottlenecks affecting Its Performance And Make The Council in Tune With The Current Realities In Regulating Press And For Related Matters”. There are exactly 12 amendments proposed by the bills. These range from the appointment of the boards of NPC and NBC to their functions, to penalties for breaching the code of professional code.
It also makes the President and Minister the confirming authorities for board appointments rather than the Nigerian Senate. Section 2(3) of the NPC bill says: Members of the board (for NUJ, NGE, NPAN & BON) shall be appointed by the President on the recommendation of the minister “after an election by or on the nomination of the unions, association or other body concerned”.
We abhor this fresh attempt by a so called democratic governing eroding the freedom of the press which is constitutionally guaranteed. In the age of fake news and hate speech and for the purpose of ensuring compliance with ethical and professional standards, regulation is desirable but the acceptable standards for such regulation are that they should not erode media independence; they should not be unduly punitive and not seek to criminalise journalism.
They should not undermine constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression; and not undermine the right of the public to know. The bills for the amendment of the NBC and NPC Acts fall short of the above standards and many more. The international trend, which Nigeria should emulate is in the direction of peer regulation and constitutionally guaranteed freedom of the press. The trend also includes removing from the statute all laws that criminalize freedom of expression. Ghana, South Africa and Sierra Leone have followed this trend
There is genuine concern that the government is trying to use the NPC and the NBC to continue the assaults on the media as it has done with pieces of legislation like the Cybercrimes Act. Sections 24 and 38 of the Act have been used in no fewer than ten instances to clamp down on bloggers or journalists for expressing opinion opposing politically or economically powerful elites. Amnesty International has actually documented 50 cases where the law had targeted, not cybercrime suspects, but bloggers and journalists for writing on what they “know to be false, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, ill will or needless anxiety to another.”
For the protection of the public interest and as obtains in other jurisdictions such as Ghana and South Africa, the media sector regulator must be independent of the political control and manipulation of the government of the day so that it can fairly adjudicate in cases before it. It is curious, if not worrisome, that unlike other regulatory agencies such as the National Communications Commission, it is only the media sector regulators – the NBC & the NPC – that the appointment of their boards is not subject to the confirmation of the Senate but merely an affair between the offices of the Minister of Information and the President. This practice effectively undermines the capability of the National Assembly to perform its oversight functions in accordance with section 88 of the Constitution.
On the issue of the independence of the broadcast sector regulator, the International Press Centre and the Centre for Media Law and Advocacy submit as follows: “The conduct of the NBC has overtime presented it as an extension of the office of the Minister of Information and Culture which rarely acts independently. In recent times the NBC has taken actions against certain broadcast media that are believed to be politically motivated. The time is therefore overripe to make the NBC truly independent. The process of licensing broadcast stations is also apparently politically compromised, as under the present National Broadcasting Act, only the President can do so on the basis of such a recommendation to him by the NBC through the Minister of Information.”
The proposed amendment to section 2 of the NBC law would continue to make the NBC the accuser, the prosecutor and the judge in its own case. It is indeed curious and certainly unacceptable that the section in question seeks to confer on NBC – an unelected body – the power to determine the public interest. In the proposed amendment, Section 2 (FUNCTIONS OF THE COMMISSION), sub-section (n) states as follows: “(n) determine and apply sanctions (including where justified in the public interest) revocation of licenses of defaulting stations following findings of repeatedly material non-compliance with this Act, the license conditions or applicable provisions of the NBC CODE, which do not operate in accordance with the broadcast code and in the public Interest.”
Say no to anti-freedom of speech, say no anti-media law
The NPC amendment bill seeks to duplicate registration authorities for newspapers, which are already known to be registered as businesses. Section 3 (e) states that the council will “receive, process and consider applications for the establishment, ownership, and operation of print media and other related media houses” . The provision also violates section 39 of the Constitution. The section makes it clear that everyone shall be entitled to freedom of expression [and] under its subsection [2] “…everyone shall be entitled to own, establish and operate any medium…”
It is strange and absolutely unacceptable for the bill to provide that the code of ethics of journalism will be approved by the Minister of Information as if the media is a unit of the ministry. The amendment to the Act in Section 3 (Functions of the Council) in 3 (c) states as follows: “with the approval of the Minister in charge of Information [the NPC shall] establish and disseminate a national Press Code and standards to guide conduct of print media, related media houses and media practitioners.” Section 9 (Code of Conduct) also provides in 9 (1) that: “The Council shall establish a National Press and Ethical Code of conduct for media houses and media practitioners, which shall come into effect and be disseminated after the approval by the Minister. Section 3 (d) of the proposed NBC Act amendment is clearly a threat to press freedom. It provides that the council shall:
“approve penalties and fines against violation of the Press Code by print media houses and media practitioners, including revocation of license”.
It is for the reasons advanced above that we earnestly exhort all lovers of democracy, specifically free speech, to rise in rejection of this official attempt to erase the news media space. The National Assembly, the Senate in particular, should stop the proposed legislation in its tracks as it also seeks to take away its power to confirm appointments made by the executive.
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