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The Director General of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, has restated the commission’s determination to sanction broadcasters or stations that promote hate speech.
He gave the warning in Kano recently at a stakeholders’ meeting on political broadcasts.
He noted: “In order to get advantageous positions in battles for hegemonic control of society, the political elite deploys every available weapon of political warfare, but most especially the manipulation of the fault lines of society, such as ethno-religious contradictions and the manipulative use of money and the desperate desire to compromise the media to achieve advantages that might in the long run, work against the overall health of society.”
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He disclosed that NBC had proposed a new section of the broadcast code which states: “No broadcast shall encourage or incite to crime, lead to public disorder or hate, be repugnant to public feelings or contain offensive reference to any person or organisation, alive or dead or generally be disrespectful to human dignity.”
He added: “Hate speech is prohibited, therefore, a broadcaster shall not transmit any programme, programme promotion, community service announcement or station identity, which is likely, in any circumstance, to provoke or perpetuate in a reasonable person, intense dislike, serious contempt or severe ridicule against a person or groups of people because of age, colour, gender, national or ethnic origin, disability, race, religion or political leanings.”
