As the 2015 general election approaches, and the Adamawa state governorship election slated for October, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), the regulatory organ for all radio and television stations in the country, has warned politicians and broadcasters not to use any of the critical mass media to the advantage of one political party or the other.
NBC said any TV or radio station found to be taking side with any politician at the disadvantage of the other would be closed down, as the Commission has efficient technical and human capacities to monitor TV and radio broadcasting across the country.
The Director General of the Commission, Mr. Emeka Mba, while answering reporter’s questions over the weekend, on its activities across the country in the last 22 years in Abuja, said broadcasters in Ekiti and Osun states must be given kudos for the impartial role they played during the elections in their states.
He said: “Permit me to say here, that we are encouraged by the outcomes of the two recently-held elections in Ekiti and Osun states. NBC takes a very aggressive stance especially given the impact of broadcasting and how it could colour the outcomes of elections and how it can be misused.
“In the last elections, we had our monitoring officers on the ground, we had our monitoring vans within the locality of the elections and there were hands on the ground to engage all the broadcasters etc.
“You see there are few challenges here and there but I think by and large, the broadcasters behaved themselves which was a remarkable improvement from what we saw in 2011. You saw states TV stations and broadcast stations, which allows opposition parties air time.”
He admitted this was not the case as in several previous elections across the country. However, Mba, added: “This is to say that things are beginning to improve; I’m not saying that we are there yet, but we have seen some improvements from the last 2011 elections.
“We hope that with constant engagement which we have put in place, we hope that we will see further improvements as we go to Adamawa, which is in October and as we make progress for the 2015 elections.
He said NBC would not hesitate to jam any TV or radio that refuses to play by the rule. “We are very determined as we have jamming equipment, any station that flouts the law, we would close them down.
“We are not going to apologise to anybody over this as we shall be applying the NBC code because if we fail to act it is that same law that people will accuse us of not doing our job.
“We would act based on what the law stipulates, but I would like to say here that generally speaking broadcasters are behaving much better than they did in previous elections. I would like to commend the leadership of some of the broadcast stations especially in Osun state, as there was remarkable improvement from previous elections.”
Source: Thisday
