The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development, (CJID), have slammed Nigeria’s number one man, President Muhammadu Buhari.
The groups filed a lawsuit against the President, asking the court to “declare arbitrary and illegal, the N5 million imposed on Trust Television, (TrustTV), MultiChoice Nigeria Limited, Nigerian Television Authority-StarTimes Ltd and others over their documentaries on terrorism in the country”.
Joined in the suit as Defendants are the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, and the National Broadcasting Commission, (NBC).
NBC had last week imposed the fines on the media houses, claiming that their documentaries “glorified the activities of bandits and undermines national security in Nigeria”, and contravene the provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.
Recall that Trust TV was fined over the broadcast of the documentary titled “Nigeria’s Banditry: The Inside Story”, which was aired by the station on March 5, 2022. The Commission had said the fine was imposed on TrustTV because its broadcast of the said documentary contravened sections of the National Broadcasting Code.
However, in the suit, filed last Friday at the Federal High Court, Lagos, on behalf of the plaintiffs by their lawyers, Kolawole Oluwadare and Ms. Adelanke Aremo, SERAP and the CJID are seeking: “an order setting aside the arbitrary and illegal fines of N5 million and any other penal sanction unilaterally imposed by the NBC on these media houses simply for carrying out their constitutional duties”.
According to the plaintiffs, the action by NBC and Mohammed is arbitrary, illegal, and unconstitutional, as it is contrary to section 39 of the Nigerian Constitution, and international human rights treaties including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which Nigeria has ratified.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
