Editorial: Reps’ move and concerns over FG’s stance on media bills
Last week, beginning from Wednesday, the House of Representatives, through its Committee on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values, held a public hearing on some critical mass media related laws amendment bills. JOSHUA EGBODO writes on issues arising therefrom
The Tweeter ban saga
Not long before the committee headed by Hon. Odebunmi Dokun made public, dates for the two-day public hearing on the bills, there had been raging controversies over federal government’s decision to suspend the operation of popular social media platform; Tweeter, in Nigeria. The move was in reaction to decision of the platform to delete President Muhammadu Buhari’s post which made reference to the Nigerian civil war, and concluded with a threat to deal with secession agitators from the south east region “in the language they understand”.
Tweeter in explaining its decision to delete the post stated that the said comment offended certain provisions of its user policy. The move, however, did not go down well with the Buhari-led government, which swiftly, through its Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed announced suspension of the social media platform in Nigeria.
To many Nigerians, recommendations of the federal government on what should be clauses in some of the proposed bills may have been apparent extended reaction to the Tweeter saga, and its earlier move towards introducing stiff control of the social media space.
Stakeholders fume
When the hearing began last Wednesday, what was glaring to many analysts was the fact of the committee being apparently overwhelmed by the massive positions of objection to certain provisions of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Act amendment bill, and the Nigerian Press Council (NPC) Act amendment bill amongst other observations on the Advertising Practitioners Council Act amendment bill, and more.
Specifically, on the NBC Act amendment proposal, the federal government through Lai Mohammed asked the Dokun-led committee, to provide it with powers to regulate private broadcasting organisations which are using the internet and other online outlets in transmitting contents.
The minister said the National Assembly should amend the existing NBC law to include internet broadcast and all online media broadcast in the country, insisting that government has an obligation to monitor broadcast content. “I want to add here specifically that internet broadcasting and all online media should be included in this because we have responsibility to monitor content, including Tweeter”, he stated. The NBC prior to that, directed broadcast media organisations to delete their accounts in compliance with government’s position.
Counter positions
Beside reported economic losses and explained legal implications of the government directive, various stakeholders in attendance also called for the removal of arbitrary powers of the NBC as are in extant laws as well as cautioned against adding more of such.
“The NBC currently operates as an institution that is an island unto itself. As it suits the whim and caprice of its Director General, it decides on the punishment and goes ahead to apply the sanctions, which sometimes include shutdown of broadcast stations. In other words, NBC is often the accuser, the prosecutor and the judge in its own case”, the International Press Centre (IPC) stated in its position paper presented to the committee.
Represented by its Executive Directot, Mr. Lanre Arogundade at the public hearing, the IPC recommended that there should be provision for the right of appeal to the board of the NBC, where sanction is applicable for alleged breach of the Nigerian broadcasting code.
Also making presentation, Executive Director of the Institute for Media and Society, Dr. Akin Akinbulu faulted the provision of section 23 of the draft alteration Bill, giving the minister of information power to participate in the making of regulations by the NBC, arguing that it would be a tool for political interference, and so should be discarded.
NPAN’s cry of exclusion
While debates on issues of great concerns expressed by participants at the day one of the hearing lasted by way of news reports and opinion of policy analysts, a critical stakeholder in the media industry; the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), cried out that it was totally excluded from the process, noting that it received with surprise, news of a public hearing specifically on the Nigerian Press Council, NPC Act amendment bill, which was to come up on the second day, after a reschedule from day one.
“As a stakeholder in the Nigerian media space, we don’t understand why print media owners have not been invited to participate in the hearing. This is contrary to earlier practice when the NPAN was invited to a public hearing on the same bill in the last Senate.
“This time around, we find it strange that we would get to know of this development by sheer happenstance. We therefore call on the leadership of the National Assembly, and the House of Representatives in particular, to redress this anomaly”, a statement by President of the association, Kabiru Yusuf noted, with assurance that the organisation will make appearance on the day two of the event.
“We also call on all media workers, and their organisations, to pay attention to the public hearing which may have important consequences on the freedom of the press in particular and good governance in general”, it directed.
A new twist
At resumption of the public hearing on day two, the Nigeria Press Organisation (NPO), which stood as an umbrella body for NPAN and other sister organisations added a new issue to the proposed amendment to the NPC Act, asking the committee to step the bill down on account of a pending litigation before the Supreme Court.
Editor in Chief Leadership newspapers, and representative of the NPO, Mr. Azu Ishiekwene, while speaking before the committee recalled that in 2010, the NPO got a court ruling that 17 out of 39 clauses of Press Freedom Bill were unconstitutional, a decision the federal government appealed and got a ruling in its favour in December 2015, but that the said ruling was again appealed by NPO and still pending in the Supreme Court.
“The matter that is under consideration now is before the Supreme Court. In 2010, the NPO which is the umbrella organisation for the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) — these are the constituents part of the NPO.
“It is a matter that has been pending in court since 1999 but the first decisive ruling in the matter came in 2010 when the high court ruled that 17 out of the 39 clauses in the bill were unconstitutional, the federal government appealed and got a ruling in December 2010. That ruling was again appealed by the NPO and it is pending in the Supreme Court”, he noted, and said for that reason, the bill should be stepped down.
In its submissions, the Nigerian Press Council (NPC), through its Executive Secretary, Mr. Francis Nwosu admitted that there had been an existing litigation over certain provisions in the law, and opined that certain proposals in the amendment bill will however ensure quality delivery of its mandates, including alternative disputes resolution (ADR), which to it has helped in reducing court cases in the sector.
Committee adamant
The committee however insisted on going on with the exercise, as it was a mandate given to it by the House of Representatives, in which they act and speak for the people. So in response, Chairman of the committee, Dokun said “no court will stop us from passing the bill. We have the mandate of the National Assembly and the Nigerian people”.
The expectations
With the hearing concluded amidst warning to the executive and legislative arms of the federal government by stakeholders against some draconian postures toward enacting laws in the face of current circumstances, without recourse to future considerations in the aftermath of the current system portend serious danger, Nigerians are full with high and uncertain expectations.
Report from the committee may be available soon, but concerns have been on whether collated inputs will shape opinion of the panel. In the feelings of such analysts, it was time the opposition political parties act in unison to stop the perceived authoritarianism before it is too late.
