The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) recently issued a circular addressed to all broadcast stations, on the need to handle their Newspaper Reviews and Current Affairs Programmes with caution. The regulator of the broadcast industry observed that headlines of most newspapers on a daily basis are replete with reports on security issues and incidents happening in different locations across the country.

It said that while such headlines were useful in bringing information on security to the doorsteps of Nigerians, releasing too many details about the security situation may have an adverse implication on the efforts of security agencies charged with the responsibility of dealing with the insurgency, banditry and other safety challenges confronting the country.

The Commission, therefore, enjoined broadcasters to collaborate with the government in dealing with the security challenges by: not glamorising the nefarious activities of insurgents, terrorists, kidnappers and bandits. It also urged broadcast stations to advise their guests and/ or analysts on programmes not to polarise the citizenry with divisive rhetoric, in driving home their points.

The NBC further charged the broadcast stations to avoid giving details of either the security issues or victims of these security challenges so as not to jeopardise the efforts of the security outfits in trying to curtail it. It reminded the stations of the provisions of Sections 5.41 (f) and 5.4.3 of the NBC Code which provides that: “The broadcaster shall not transmit divisive materials that may threaten or compromise the divisibility and indissolubility of Nigeria as a sovereign state. “In reporting conflict situations, the broadcaster shall perform the role of a peace agent by adhering to the principle of responsibility, accuracy and neutrality.”

Ordinarily, we could have taken this circular as a routine communication between a regulator and operators of radio and television stations in Nigeria. But we cannot gloss over it because we are all involved in the task of informing, enlightening and educating the populace about events in our country. Moreover, the advisory emanated directly from reports published by newspapers and reviewed by the radio and television stations.

We cannot stand aloof or treat this circular as the sole concern of the electronic media, taking into consideration the consistent attempts by the Federal Government under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to muzzle freedom of expression and freedom of the press in the country.

It is instructive to note that this NBC advisory is coming just while the media industry is still battling the National Assembly over the rather sinister plot to amend the Nigeria Press Council (NPC) Act and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Act ostensibly to gag and possibly, strangulate the media. We think that this circular represents a renewed attack on press freedom and another encroachment on the right of citizens to information and freedom of expression.

It is also a surreptitious move to further intimidate the broadcast stations that are already very jittery because of the fines often imposed on them for alleged infractions of some obnoxious rules contained in the NBC Code. Indeed, this is a subtle plot to force radio and television operators into jettisoning the daily review of newspapers on their stations out of fear of running afoul of the NBC rules and regulations. This government appears bent on closing all avenues to free expression and criticisms and imposing a culture of fear on the populace. This is unfortunate and dangerous in a country supposedly under a democratic dispensation.

Since the modified NBC Code came into effect, many On Air Personalities (OAPs) in the various radio and television stations have lost their groove and professional candour. While anchoring programmes or interviewing guests on current affairs, they struggle every minute to stop interviewees and callers on phone-in-programmes from expressing themselves fully as they ought to under normal circumstances. This is unacceptable because the right to freedom of expression is enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and every attempt to limit that freedom is an infringement on the rights of citizens and an attack on the constitution. While we do not support falsehood and divisive language on radio and television, we can affirm that the media has been largely truthful, fair and responsible even in the face of numerous challenges.

We think that the media has bent over backwards enough already just in order to support this administration in the task of keeping Nigeria together. We strongly feel that this circular has the potential of driving broadcast stations into a worse form of self-censorship where discussions on radio and television would become meaningless.

What exactly does the NBC actually mean by glamorising the activities of the insurgents, terrorists and bandits? How does the report of a mass abduction of a hundred students from their dormitory glamorise the bandits when the same report attracts widespread condemnation from the public? Would the NBC and the security agencies feel better if the media fails to bring such a terrorist act to public knowledge? Should the media keep silent when the same bandits who successfully carried out abduction, go ahead to demand for food supplies and other items to sustain their evil enterprise while waiting for their huge ransom? Should analysts who come on radio to review events of the day be silent about these nefarious activities while fellow citizens are languishing in the custody of armed bandits? Whose interest would such silence serve but the kidnappers, terrorists and bandits? We think that the challenge of insecurity cannot be resolved by merely shutting out reports of kidnappings, mass abductions and killings from the media space.

The media has a constitutional responsibility to highlight these incidents as a way of prodding the government and security agencies to act swiftly to prevent further threats to lives and property across the country. The NBC should realise that in reporting security issues and incidents, the media does not set out to glamorise the perpetrators of evil but to draw the attention of the relevant authorities, particularly the security agencies to rise to the occasion and bring back some level of security to the nation. Lastly, we must state for emphasis that media reports and analysis cannot be blamed for the apparent slow response of the government to security emergencies threatening the lives and property of citizens.

Let this government take the challenge of insecurity seriously by tackling it without ethnological, religious and political bias and the narrative in the media will portray the same without colouration. Besides, should this happen, it is the same media that will also spread the achievements for all and sundry to applaud both the government and our gallant security personnel for keeping the citizens safe.