The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP)
has filed a suit against President Muhammadu Buhari over the directive of the
National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on the reportage of insecurity.
Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, and the
NBC are joined as defendants in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/725/2021.
In a letter dated July 7 and signed by Francisca Aiyetan,
director of broadcast monitoring, the NBC had directed radio and television
stations not to “glamourise the nefarious activities of insurgents, bandits and
kidnappers” in their reports.
But SERAP and the Centre for Journalism Innovation and
Development, a CSO, have asked the court to declare NBC’s directive illegal.
They are asking the court to determine if the directive “is
not inconsistent and incompatible with section 22 and 39 of the Constitution of
the federal republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended], Article 9 of the African
Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Article 19 of International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights”.
The plaintiffs also want the court to declare that the
failure of the information minister and President Buhari to direct the
commission “to withdraw its directive contained in Letter dated July 7, 2021,
is in breach of Section 5[a] and [b], 147 and 148 of the 1999 Constitution,
Code of Conduct for Public Officers (Fifth Schedule Part 1) of the Constitution
of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), Oath of office (Seventh
Schedule) of the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999”.
They are also seeking, among other things, “a declaration
that the daily newspaper review by broadcast stations in Nigeria and the
factual reporting of incidents of insurgency, attacks by terrorists and bandits
and reports about victims in parts of Nigeria is legal, constitutional and in
furtherance of Nigerians’ rights to information, freedom of expression, media
access and media freedom.
“An order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants
or any other authority, whether jointly or severally, persons or group of
persons from unlawfully shutting down, imposing fine, suspension, withdrawal of
license or doing anything whatsoever to unlawfully impose sanctions on any or
all of Nigeria’s broadcasting stations for broadcasting reports of insecurity
or insurgency, attacks by terrorists and bandits and reports about victims in
Nigeria or any part during the daily newspapers reviews.”
According to the plaintiffs, “factual reporting on the
growing violence in parts of Nigeria is a matter of public interest”.
“The NBC directive to journalists and broadcast stations to
stop reporting these cases, coupled with the possibility of fines and other
punishment, would have a disproportionate chilling effect on the work of those
seeking to hold the government accountable to the public,” they added.
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