#ENDSARS Coverage: Why We Fined AIT, Channels, Arise TV, N3m Each ― NBC

The National Broadcasting Commission, NBC has sanctioned major broadcast stations for violating broadcasting code during the #ENDSARS protest.

They include: Channels Television, African Independent Television and Arise TV; all fined N3m each.

The decision was announced on Monday by the acting Director General of the Commission, Prof. Armstrong Idachaba, at a press briefing in Abuja.

According to Professor Idachaba, the affected stations were guilty of playing a part in the escalation of the violence across Nigeria and therefore fined in line with the provisions of section 5.6.9 of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code which states that; “the broadcaster shall be held liable for any breach of the Code emanation from the use of material from User Generated Sources”.

For him, the sanction is to serve as a deterrent to broadcasters who deliberately ignore to verify stories before they broadcast.

The NBC boss said the Commission was pained about what he called the unprofessional conduct of some broadcasting stations in the past couple of days, saying that though the Broadcast media discharged their roles professionally and most patriotic in confronting the challenge of #Covid-19 Crisis, the same cannot be said of the coverage of the recent #EndSARS campaign.

He specifically accused Channels Television, Arise TV and AIT of continuous transmission of footages obtained from unverified and unauthenticated social media sources, which according to him stimulated anger and heightened the violence that was witnessed during the crisis.