MEDIA REFORM: Buhari approves review of Broadcast Code, says there must be ‘sanity’

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a review of the Broadcast Code that is believed would bring about wide range reforms in the broadcasting industry, including the licensing of online radio and television stations.

This was disclosed in a statement by Segun Adeyemi, an aide to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.

He quoted the minister to have made the disclosure in Abuja on Friday when he received members of the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) in his office.

BON had requested for the review of the Broadcasting Code.

In his response Mohammed said, “I just want to use this opportunity to inform you that Mr. President has actually already approved a review of the Broadcast Code that is going to take care of many of the issues you have already raised here.

According Mohammed, President Buhari had approved that WebTVs and radio stations, including foreign broadcasters beaming signals into Nigeria, will be licensed because “sanity” must be brought into this industry.

He added, “Mr. President has also approved a wide range of reforms in the industry which, at the appropriate platform, I will let you know.”

While Mohammed assured to carry BON along in the review of the Broadcasting Code, he nonetheless, stressed that Buhari’s administration is committed to free media.

He said, “I have said it on many platforms that this administration is not about to gag the press. No! But we will appeal to the press to please self-regulate for the sake of this country and also for the sake of the industry itself.”

He further urged BON to partner with the government in the promotion of peaceful co-existence and cohesion in order to engender progress and national development.

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“Today, if anybody listens to what is being said on some radio or television stations, you will think that this country is at war or that Christians actually cannot live with Muslims or that there is a dichotomy between the North and the South,” he said.

Acting chairman of BON, Godfrey Ohuabunwa, in his remarks applauded the minister and said that he deserved his re-appointment having brought life and great innovation to the broadcast industry during the first tenure of the administration.

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