Adebayo Adenrele
The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) has described the decision of National Broadcasting Corporation, by revoking licenses and shutting down the operation of about 52 media Houses as hasty, ill-timed and reckless.
In a statement by the NUJ National President, Chris Isiguzo, he challenged the action of the industry regulatory body by the Director General, Mallam Balarabe Shehu, that a media blackout is not what the nation needs, adding that dialogue should have been devised to solve the issue.
NEWSTODAYNG recalled that NBC revoked the broadcast licenses of Silverbird TV, AIT, Raypower FM, Rhythm FM and 48 media houses on Friday over their failure to pay federal licensing charges of N2.6 billion since 2015.
The statement reads, “The decision today by the Industry Regulator, the National Broadcasting Commission – NBC, to revoke the licenses of 52 broadcast stations nationwide over-indebtedness to the Commission was ill-advised. The affected stations, according to NBC, are said to owe arrears of licence fees amounting to N2.6 billion since 2015.”
“Although the Director General of NBC, Malam Balarabe Shehu Ilelah claimed that this development had no political motives, yet we insist that the action was ill-timed and reckless. 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.”
“While we regret the inability of these broadcast stations to fulfil their obligations to NBC, in view of dwindling resources, we caution against such a large-scale clampdown of broadcast stations in disregard to security issues and the attendant consequence.”
“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.”