‘Fake news and hate speech are controversial matters, allow NBC to do its job,’ Iredia tells Lai Mohammed

A professor of Broadcast Management and Media Law, Tony Iredia, said on Wednesday the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has hijacked the duties of the Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

The minister on Tuesday announced the increase of the hate speech fine from N500,000 to N5million.

He also unveiled several amendments in the broadcasting code at a forum in Lagos.

Iredia, who appeared on Channels Television’s programme, Sunrise Daily, urged Mohammed to leave broadcasters in the NBC to do their job.

The veteran broadcaster was reacting to the controversy generated by the increase in the hate speech fine.

He said the issue of fake news and hate speech were subjective and controversial matters, adding that criticism could also be tagged hate speech, thus the broadcasting code could be subject to abuse.

Iredia said: “There is a real problem. Everybody expects a broadcasting commission to be an autonomous body that has no place in politics. If you listen to the news, who has been speaking? The Minister of Information. Is he the Director-General of the NBC?

Read also: EFCC: Nigeria is now headquarters of fake news —Buhari’s aide, Onochie

“When the minister is speaking, there is no way broadcasters can see that the regulator is speaking. He is not a regulator. He should leave the broadcasters in the NBC to do their professional duty. The law gives him the right to supervise but not to take over the job.

“The moment the minister is speaking, no matter how well-intentioned he may be, the people become suspicious because he belongs to a political divide and whatever he says is likely to be used against the opposition and I think this is a natural thing.

“Now take the issue of fake news that has been overplayed in the last couple of weeks. We were all in this country a few days ago when a minister told the nation that contracts in the NDDC were being grabbed by legislators. The legislators now challenged him to bring a list. The next thing the minister said was that he didn’t say so.

“We heard him say so, and we heard him say he didn’t say so. Now between the time he said so and the time he said he didn’t say so, broadcasters had gone ahead to broadcast it which is now fake news. Who is guilty now? Is it the media, the minister, or the politics of broadcasting?

“The point I’m trying to make is fake news, hate speech are very subjective terminologies and one has to be very careful because some will take criticism as hate speech but criticism is not hate speech.”

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