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NBC sanctions 45 stations, cautions #BBNaija on ‘unwholesome content’

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About 45 broadcasting stations have been sanctioned by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) for allegedly breaching its code.

NBC Director General, Ishaq Kawu, made this disclosure during a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said the contraventions, which occurred in the second quarter of 2019, included breaches of the rules on hate speech, abusive and inflammatory broadcast.

According to him, the commission’s second quarter monitoring of broadcast stations’ profile was from April to June, 2019.

“Coming shortly after the national and state elections in the first quarter of the year, the report indicates that there is a drop in breaches related to hateful, abusive and inflammatory broadcast, which peaked during the elections.

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“Thus as many as 45 stations were fined, the second quarter indicates that the trend has continued among certain stations, especially in political programmes.

“Therefore 20 stations were fined in the 2nd Quarter, for breaching provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code on hate speech.

“Other breaches were in the area of obscene and vulgar lyrics- a total of 10 stations were fined for infractions related to use of vulgar lyrics and obscene content.

“It is worth mentioning that the program Big Brother Naija was cautioned against unwholesome content on its broadcast,” Kawu said.

The NBC boss stated that the use of “unsubstantiated and misleading claims” by advertisers especially trado-medic advertisers also dropped significantly from the last quarter, but that a total of 30 stations were fined for infractions related to same.

He added that ten broadcast stations were fined for breaches related to station announcers turning themselves to advertisers, hypes and promoters of product.

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