Nigeria's corrupt National Broadcasting Commission fines TV channels over protest news coverage, threatens to shut them down.

by Thinus Ferreira

In a shocking announcement, Nigeria's corrupt National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on Monday announced that it is levelling fines against some of Nigeria's TV channels - including Arise TV, Channels Television and AIT - over their #EndSARS protest news coverage which the country's beleaguered president Muhammadu Buhari doesn't like, and threatened that they may be shut down.

Nigeria's NBC said that it will shut TV channels down if they continue to broadcast news coverage that the NBC and Nigerian government sees as instigating a breakdown of law and order in the West African country, or if they broadcast anything that "threaten the security of the country".

Armstrong Idachaba, NBC acting director-general, on Monday suddenly announced at a press conference in Abuja that Arise TV, Channels Television and AIT are each being fined N3 million (R127 862) for what the NBC unilaterally decided is "unprofessional coverage".

The NBC last week ordered Nigeria's TV channels and radio not to "embarrass" Nigeria as a country with their coverage of the "#EndSars" protests sweeping the struggling country.

Armstrong Idachaba claimed that Arise TV, Channels TV and AIT were guilty of "gross violation of the broadcast code, top of which is the use of unverified online video footage from social media". 

As public protests and civil unrest exploded and spread in Nigeria last week following the indiscriminate killing of protesters by Nigerian special forces, multiple TV news channels in Nigeria had their news crews attacked, their buildings and studios invaded, burnt and destroyed.

Angry and fearful Nigerians have been demonstrating for the past 2 weeks against the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police unit that Nigerians accuse of gross extortion, harassment, torture, police brutality and murder.

The Channels TV channel meanwhile abruptly stopped broadcasting on Wednesday afternoon soon after TVC News started to burn.

Channels, carried on MultiChoice's DStv and GOtv in Nigeria, simply showed the channel logo and ran an on-air scroll simply saying "Channels Television is temporarily shutting down due to imminent attack on our staff and operations".

Channels later switched to recorded rebroadcasts.

Reporters of African Independent Television (AIT) and Silverbird Television were reportedly harassed while trying to cover the unfolding protests in Nigeria, while Toyin Yusuf, a journalist with Osun State Broadcasting Corporation was attacked. 

Meanwhile Nigerian soldiers prevented a TV news crew from Arise TV from covering the news at the Lekki Tollgate.

ALSO READ: TVC News headquarters and news vans in Lagos burn as channel is forced off air, Channels TV shuttered, LTV attacked; news crews and reporters from AIT, Silverbird, Arise TV and OSBC harassed by soldiers and protesters as Nigeria's protests spread after government curfew and killings by security forces.

Court orders Nigeria's African Independent Television (AIT) channel back on-air after censorship authority shutdown, building surrounded by police and state security.

The signal of Nigeria's African Independent Television (AIT) has been restored and the TV channel is back on the air after a court order for its transmission to be restored following its shutdown by Nigeria's draconian censorship broadcasting body.

AIT is carried on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service, and by late-Friday was once again seen on channel 253 on DStv in Nigeria.

Nigeria's censorship authority, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on Thursday ordered the privately-owned AIT and the private radio station RayPower FM - both owned by Daar Communications plc - off the air and its licence suspended for allegedly breaching Nigeria's broadcasting code.

Daar Communications is owned by the businessman Raymond Dokpesi who happens to be a member of the opposition party, People's Democratic Party (PDP), in Nigeria.

The NBC ordering the crackdown on AIT and RayPower FM said the media outlets have "embarked on use of inflammatory, divisive, inciting broadcasts and media propaganda against the government and the NBC for performing its statutory functions of regulating the broadcast industry in Nigeria".

The shutdown notice was indefinite.

Daar Communications immediately went to court with the Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria that on Friday granted an injunction and ordered that AIT and RayPower FM's signals be restored for the time being.

Judge Inyang Ekwo said AIT should go back on air for the time being until the court case can be heard. The case has been adjourned to 13 June 2019.

Meanwhile Nigerian security forces - the Nigerian police and Nigeria's State Security Service (SSS) - have surrounded AIT's premises after it reopened, Tony Akiotu, AIT's group managing director told Nigeria's Premium Times.

The premises of Daar Communications was surrounded by state security who arrived "heavily fortified and carrying out surveillance on the premises,".