By Wale Odunsi The Northern Broadcast Media Owners Association (NBMOA) has advised the Federal Government to extend a hand of friend...
By Wale Odunsi
The Northern Broadcast Media Owners Association (NBMOA) has
advised the Federal Government to extend a hand of friendship to the media.
The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) fined Trust TV
N5million for its documentary, “Nigeria’s Banditry: The Inside Story”.
Multichoice Nigeria Limited (DStv owners), NTA-Startimes
Limited, and Telcom Satellite Limited (TSTV) were also fined N5million each for
airing BBC’s “The Bandit Warlords of Zamfara”.
In a statement on Saturday, NBMOA Acting Chairman Abdullahi
Yelwa stressed that fines would not end the insecurity in Nigeria.
The association urged the NBC to rescind the decision and
build synergy between the media and government.
Yelwa said the Trust TV documentary was judged to be
balanced, fair, and ethical, “even though the NBC deemed it to have glorified
banditry and breached national security”.
He noted that an objective review of the film would reveal
“the depth, ingenuity, patriotism and professionalism of its producers”.
“Security challenges currently confronting the nation
require a new strategy. This, we believe, was what the producers of the
programme attempted to do.”
The statement added that the “positive takeaways, if
property harnessed by all concerned, would go a long way in aiding our
understanding of the ecosystem of banditry in Nigeria”.
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