HIDING under the guise of tackling hate speech and fake news, the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has again shown its disdain for democratic ideals by pressing ahead with its efforts to muzzle free speech and gag the press.
Earlier in the week, the National Broadcasting Commission, which regulates the broadcast industry, imposed a fine of N3 million each on three private television stations, Channels, Africa Independent Television and Arise TV for their reports on the #EndSARS protests that had garnered international attention. The fine, according to the commission, was for providing their platforms to be used to promote unverifiable and inciting views “that can incite crime, public disorder.”
According to the NBC, the three stations heightened the tension by using unverifiable video footage sourced from social media amid reports that soldiers shot at unarmed protesters at the Lekki toll plaza on October 20, 2020. Curiously, the commission failed to mention if the video footage used were fake or real. Days earlier, it had warned all stations to “maintain professionalism” and not report the protests in a manner that would embarrass private individuals and the government. In August, the NBC had fined Nigeria Info 99.3FM N5 million for airing the allegation by Obadiah Mailafia, a former Central Bank of Nigeria Deputy Governor, that a northern state governor “is a commander of Boko Haram.” This is taking regulation ridiculously too far.
Such press censorship is reminiscent of the infamous Decree 4 of 1984, which stated that any person, who published any material that is false or is calculated to bring the government or a public officer to ridicule, is liable to prison. Incidentally, the defunct decree, which led to the jailing of journalists and remains one of the most repressive laws ever enacted in Nigeria, was put in place by Buhari during his first outing as military head of state (1984-85).
Buhari’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed – who was the strident mouthpiece of the opposition and champion of free speech for nearly a decade – has transformed to the crusader for the ignoble assignment of stifling free speech. He started this with his overbearing role in the NBC, a regulator that ideally, ought to maintain professionalism and neutrality. Ironically, Mohammed had in his inaugural speech as minister in November 2015, accused state-owned media of being unprofessional and losing the confidence of Nigerians, adding, “The public broadcasters have thrown professionalism to the wind while also showing total disregard for editorial independence in many cases. They have mortgaged their credibility on the altar of political correctness.”
Whose interests are really being served here? Rather than overhaul the archaic state-owned media organisations, Mohammed now seeks to turn private broadcasters into the very thing he once criticised by using the NBC to muzzle them into silence. Ikra Bilbis, the chairman of the NBC’s governing board, alleged that Mohammed amended the broadcasting code and unilaterally increased the fine for “hate speech” from N500,000 to N5 million without due consultation primarily to impress Buhari, who had complained about the frequency of “fake news” and “hate speech” during the 2019 elections.
But Mohammed’s anti-free speech campaign is not only targeted at the broadcast media. Earlier in the week, he reiterated his desire to regulate social media like other authoritarian countries like China, saying, “If you go to China, you cannot get Google, Facebook or Instagram, but you can only use your email because they have made sure that it is regulated.” Using China, a one-party communist and authoritarian state as reference in the role of the media in a multiparty, democratic and plural society like Nigeria is another clear affirmation of the regime’s intolerance and authoritarian tendencies.
To be sure, Section 22 of the constitution clearly explains the role of the press in holding the government accountable to the people. Indeed, any democratic government that tries to gag the media for trying to hold it accountable is authoritarian through and through. Little wonder Nelson Mandela once said, “A critical, independent and investigative press is the lifeblood of any democracy. The press must be free from state interference… It must enjoy the protection of the constitution, so that it can protect our rights as citizens.”
The media must therefore protect democracy. Broadcast organisations unjustly fined by the NBC must protect their right as enshrined in the constitution by challenging such penalties and enabling ordinances in court. Civil society organisations must complement the efforts of the media by continually putting the government on its toes.
The NBC should not be sullied by political interests; it must refuse to be the willing tool of an oppressive government. The commission, as the regulator, must adhere to international best practices like its counterpart in the United Kingdom, the Office of Communications; and the United States Federal Communications Commission, which both focus more on ensuring that obscenities and indecently explicit material are not broadcast rather than delving into political matters as the NBC is doing.
Of course, there is no denying the fact that new media, like every innovation, comes with its own attendant challenges, including fake news and hate speech and freedoms without restrictions could lead to chaos. The exponential development in information and communication technology has impacted free speech in both positive and negative ways. As an op-ed piece by Siva Vaidhyanathan in the New York Times of September 8, 2017, headlined ‘Facebook Wins, Democracy Loses,’ commented on the 2016 US presidential election, the potential for abuse of social media is vast. “An ad could falsely accuse a candidate of the worst malfeasance a day before Election Day and the victim would have no way of even knowing it happened. Ads could stoke ethnic hatred and no one could prepare or respond before serious harm occurs.”
But the government’s role in shaping the public forum is far from the way the Buhari regime is going about it. Fake news and hate speech thrive in an atmosphere of secrecy. It emerges when government agencies refuse to respond to Freedom of Information requests; when public officials hide information from the public domain.
Rather than muzzle free speech, the government should focus on promoting the democratic ideals that will ensure a more effective press and more informed populace. Effective communication remains the best tool to tackling misinformation for as ex-US President Barack Obama rightly said, “We have to uphold a free press and freedom of speech because, in the end, lies and misinformation are no match for the truth.”
END
Be the first to comment