NBC

Abuja School of Social and Political Thought (ASSPT) has faulted the ‘final warning’ by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to Arise News, describing the action as decaying symptom of the nation’s democracy and “partisan overzealousness of a regulatory agency that is strategically meant to serve Nigerians.”

Addressing journalists yesterday in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the Executive Director, Dr. Sam Amadi, said the reasons advanced for the threat were befuddling, undemocratic, autocratic and unconstitutional.

According to him, the warning smacked of an “autocratic “interference to abrogate the 1999 Constitution, which has freely bestowed freedom of expression to Nigerian citizens and media organisations.”

Amadi said the regulator needed to acknowledge that the NBC Act or Code could not override provisions of the Constitution.

He observed that the law book clearly spelt out that “the press radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people,” adding: “Section 39, Subsection 1 stressed that every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.”

Also speaking, a Research Fellow and Coordinator in the institution, Paul Obi, stated that media censorship is an ominous danger to Nigerian democracy.

He noted that the nation’s civil rule is confronting the highest forms of attacks, where the basic democratic ethos of what constitutes democracy are continually shrinking by the day.

Obi, who described the warning as disappointing, called on NBC to withdraw the threat, and henceforth, restrict itself to extant rules.