Media Rights Agenda makes FOI request to NBC for details of 302 stations sanctioned

Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has asked the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to disclose to it under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, 2011 details of the 302 broadcasting stations reportedly sanctioned by the Commission in four months after campaigns for the 2023 elections began in September 2022. MRA said it was seeking the information following the announcement made by the NBC Director General, Malam Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, at a media briefing he held in Abuja on February 9, 2023, where he was reported to have said that out of the 740 currently functional stations in Nigeria, the Commission had sanctioned 302 stations between September 28, 2022 and January 31, 2023 for various offences.

In an FOI request addressed to the Commission’s Director-General and signed by Ms Maimuna Momoh, a Programme Officer, MRA asked the NBC to provide it with a list of the 302 stations sanctioned by the NBC, including details such as the names and locations of the stations. It asked the NBC to provide for each of the 302 stations on the list, the name of the individual or entity which made the complaint against the station leading to the sanction, the date of the complaint and details of the complaint or allegation made against each station. MRA also requested the NBC to provide it with copies of all correspondence by the NBC to the stations against which the complaints were made, in which it informed them of the complaints or allegations made against them as well as copies of all correspondence from all the stations against which complaints were made in response to the allegations against them.

It asked the NBC for a list of all the broadcast stations against which the NBC received complaints of any type, pursuant to the provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, between September 28, 2022 and January 31, 2023, which the Commission investigated and absolved of any wrongdoing; details of the sanctions imposed by the NBC on each of the 302 stations sanctioned by the Commission between September 28, 2022 and January 31, 2023 as well as a list of all the stations upon which the NBC imposed fines, including the amount of the fine imposed on each of the stations.