…Says action ‘hasty, ill-timed, ill-advised, reckless‘
The Nigerian Union of Journalists, (NUJ), has described as hasty and ill-advised the decision taken and announced on Friday by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), to revoke the licenses of 52 broadcast stations nationwide over-indebtedness to the Commission.
Recall that the NBC, early yesterday announced that it had revoked the broadcast licences of Silverbird TV, AIT, Raypower FM, and Rhythm FM amongst others, over their failure to renew broadcast licences. The affected stations, according to NBC, are said to owe arrears of licence fees amounting to N2.6 billion since 2015. However, the NUJ, in a press statement, signed by the National President of the NUJ, Chris Isiguzor, said: “Although the Director-General of NBC, Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, claimed that this development had no political motives, we insist that the action was ill-timed and reckless”.
According to the Union, “It should be noted that this wholesale revocation of licences at this critical time of insecurity in the country appears to be a decision taken without careful prior deliberation, consultation or counsel”.
The NUJ further stated that “While we regret the inability of these broadcast stations to fulfill their obligations to NBC, in view of dwindling resources, we caution against such large scale clampdown of broadcast stations in disregard to security issues and the attendant consequences. We cannot afford the unpleasant outcome of such a media blackout at this time.”
“We call on NBC to exercise more restraint on this issue in consideration of national security and allow for more dialogue and consultation to find a better way of dealing with the situation”, the NUJ cautioned.
