No to anti-media bills!

The National Assembly is currently working on two anti-media bills designed not only to intimidate and stifle the press, but also to decapitate a cornerstone of our democracy – free speech. The Chairman, House Committee on Information, Mr Segun Odebunmi (PDP, Oyo State), is the sponsor of the amendment bills that intends to insert obnoxious clauses in the Nigeria Press Council (NPC) and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Acts.

The amendments are to empower the minister of information to issue licenses to print and broadcast media, and penalise journalists and media organisations for offenses already covered under the country’s penal and criminal codes. For instance, Section 3 (e, f, and g) of the NPC amendment bill says the body shall “receive, process and consider applications for the establishment, ownership and operation of print and other related media houses; with the approval of the minister, grant print media and other related licenses to any application considered worthy of such; monitor activities of the media and other related media houses to ensure compliance with the National Press Code for professional and ethical conduct, including the Nigerian Union of Journalists.”

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The bill also empowers the minister to sanction and withdraw the license of any print media that violates the ‘National Press Code’. Section 33 (3) of bill also says that “any person who carries news established to be fake news  thereafter, commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to a fine of N5 million or two years in prison or both.” And the print media that carried the ‘fake news’ shall be liable to a fine of N10 million and/or closure for one year! This clause deliberately ignores existing media laws which provides for retraction and apology where a media organisation errs in publishing a story.

Moreover, the bill as presently conceived seeks to regulate internet broadcasting and all online media outfits through an array of broadcasting licenses, including licenses for content live streaming or Over the Top Television (OTT) as it is also called. This is apparent attempt to muzzle critical voices online is ill-advised and inconsistent with a free democracy.

No opposition political party in Nigeria has benefitted more from an unfettered press than the All Progressives Congress (APC). As the then spokesman of the APC, the current Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed had ready access to the media, both traditional and online, and his viewpoints were publicised generously. It is, therefore, a crude irony that these draconian bills are being pushed into law at this time.

Over the past seven years or so, no less than five legislations have been passed, amended or proposed in the National Assembly—all of them with potential to gad the press. These include the Cybercrime Act, the Frivolous Petitions Bill, 2015, the Hate Speech Bill, the Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulations Bill 2019. These are disturbing enough.

And now come the proposed amendments to the NPC and NBC Acts. These amendments run contrary to the spirit of Section 22 of the Constitution which states that “the press, radio, television and other agencies of the media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives of the Constitution… and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people.”

We therefore reject any bills or amendments which bring print and broadcast media under the control of the minister, a politician, whose interest is to achieve immediate results for the government in power. We reject the proposal to license print media particularly, a practice that lacks any parallel in any known democracy in the world.

We also call on the National Assembly to jettison these antimedia bills, and rather engage stakeholders in the media and beyond to work out measures to will that incentivises restraint within the media, but without abridging freedom and independence as the current proposals inevitably do. This could involve an Independent Press Complaints Commission led by a retired judge and other respectable Nigerians to listen, hear and adjudicate any complaints against the press brought before it. Until then, we urge our lawmakers to throw out these obnoxious proposals.