The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members in the house of
representatives have sued the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and
Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation (AGF), over the recently
amended broadcasting code.
Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture; was also
named as defendant in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1136/2020, according to PUNCH.
The suit was reportedly filed on Wednesday by one Francis
Obalim who deposed a 15-paragraph affidavit and a written address on behalf of
the PDP lawmakers.
The code was launched in Lagos on August 4 despite
opposition by stakeholders in the industry.
Some of the amendments to the code are the restriction of
exclusive contents on platforms and broadcast content having 75 percent input
from Nigerians.
In the suit, the opposition lawmakers argued that the
amended code is a breach of the constitution because it “unlawfully creates
offences of hate speech and fake news and to prescribe penalties for them,
whereas the said offences are not prescribed by any written law in force.”
The lawmakers asked the court to determine whether, by the provisions of section 36 (12) of the constitution, the amended 6th broadcasting code enacted/issued by the first defendant (information minister), which created the purported offences of “hate speech and fake news” and correspondingly purported to have imposed penalties, is not unconstitutional, null and void.
They asked the court to determine whether or not, having
regard to the extant provisions of sections 6 and 23 of the National Broadcasting
Commission act Cap. N11 LFN 2004, the minister has the statutory power to issue
broadcasting code and whether the 6th broadcasting code purportedly issued is
not a nullity and therefore void.
The development is coming at a time Chidiebere Obidike, a
movie producer, asked the Lagos federal high court to restrain the commission
from enforcing the amended broadcasting code.
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