The National Assembly will soon intervene in the cases of undue censorship of the states government owned media houses to the disadvantage of the opposition political parties.
To this end, the House of Representatives is currently considering a proposal by some of its concerned members to sanction erring media houses that are in the habit of muzzling the opposition parties in the affected states on the purported orders of the state governments.
A member of the House, Hon. Ahmed Babba Kaita (CPC, Katsina State) who disclosed this in an interview with the Hausa Service of BBC monitored in Abuja yesterday said there was the need to remedy the situation, lest it destroys “our democracy.”
Kaita said: “It is a common knowledge that states government-owned media houses no longer air the views of the opposition parties in some states. For instance, Katsina State, where I came from, I sponsored a programme for airing, and it was rejected 9 times. The programme officials came to me and apologised citing a standing instruction not to air any opposition party’s programme”.
?He said the officials confessed to him that they had to comply for the fear of losing their jobs since State Governors hire and fire general managers of their media outfits at will.
“One of the beauties of democracy is free speech, and whenever that is gone you have autocracy. That is what we don’t want to happen here”.
The lawmaker who did not mention other members involved in the remedial mission, said, they had already spoken to the directors-general of both National Broadcasting Commission, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria and other relevant regulatory agencies on the matter, who in turn, promised to investigate and ensure? strict compliance with laid-down broadcast code by states government-owned radio stations who happen to be the major culprits.