The Executive Director of the International Press Centre, Nigeria, Lanre Arogundade, has described the threat by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, to sanction the British Broadcasting Corporation and TrustTv, over the airing of a BBC Africa Eye documentary, as flawed and tyrannical.
It was earlier reported by The PUNCH that Mohammed had alleged that their broadcast was “unprofessional,” and was “glorifying,” and “fuelling,” terrorism in the country.
He told newsmen that the regulatory body, Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, was looking at the infractions and sanctions to be meted to both platforms.
Reacting to the Minister’s statement, Arogundade said the minister and the Federal Government wanted to be a judge in their own case.
He said, “I don’t know under what law the Information minister is threatening that the FG will sanction those media organisations and I am not aware of any law that empowers the FG to sanction any media organisation.
“The statement itself has again exposed the character of this government when it comes to the media. The Minister of Information had allegedly erred because of the documentary that they aired.
“The same government has tried the news organisations and the same government has found them guilty. So, essentially, the Minister of Information is the accuser, the prosecutor, and the judge in his own case. It is just arrant nonsense.
“What one would expect is that if there are specific breaches or offences that these stations are alleged to have committed, the thing is to go to the appropriate regulatory bodies to seek redress, or depending on what you consider as the gravity of the offence, possibly charge them to the law court.
“You have not done that, you have not charged them to court, you have not gone to the legislature; the National Assembly which has committees to report.
“You just woke up on your own and said they had committed an offence and then you will sanction them. It is simply unprecedented. I don’t know other jurisdictions where this kind of arbitrariness happens.”
“So, I feel it is a threat and we will just advise the Minister of Information to withdraw the threat to these two organisations so that the government will not continue to make Nigeria a pariah state.”
Arogundade stressed that although the NBC had its own structure, the attitude of the federal minister showed that the autonomy of the NBC was in question.
