{"id":344538,"date":"2021-04-26T21:03:45","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T20:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=344538"},"modified":"2021-04-26T21:26:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-26T20:26:18","slug":"fg-nbc-told-to-reverse-suspension-of-channels-tv-within-48hrs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=344538","title":{"rendered":"FG, NBC told to reverse suspension of Channels TV within 48hrs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"mvp-content-main\">The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has threatened to take legal action against the government of President Muhammadu Buhari if they fail to immediately reverse suspension of Channels Television within 48hours.<\/p>\n<p>The National Broadcasting Commission, NBC on Monday fined Channels TV N5million for allowing a leader of the Indigenous people of Biafra, IPOB to make secessionist and inciting declarations on air without caution.<\/p>\n<p>SERAP in a statement by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, gave the ultimatum while describing the suspension of the TV station as unconstitutional and illegal.<\/p>\n<p>The group urged Buhari to stop intimidating the media in Nigeria and respect the constitution.<\/p>\n<p>Part of the statement read: \u201cPresident Muhammadu Buhari should caution the NBC to stop intimidating and harassing independent media houses and to respect the Nigerian Constitution, and t international human rights obligations, including under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government and NBC should immediately lift the suspension and reverse the fine. We will pursue appropriate legal action if the arbitrary, unconstitutional and illegal suspension and fine are not reversed within 48 hours.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis action by the government and NBC is yet another example of Nigerian authorities push to silence independent media and voices.<\/p>\n<p>SERAP described the development as a new law in Nigeria\u2019s protection of freedom of expression, and the ability of independent media to function perfectly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMedia freedom and media plurality are a central part of the effective exercise of freedom of expression and access to information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ability to practice journalism free from undue interference, to cover diverse views are crucial to the exercise of many other rights and freedoms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe media has a vital role to play as \u2018public watchdog\u2019 in imparting information of serious public concern and should not be inhibited or intimidated from playing that role.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SERAP went ahead to warn the government and NBC to stop targeting and intimidating independent media houses but protect the right to freedom of speech.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArticle 20 (2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Nigeria has ratified requires states to prohibit only advocacy that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence. Restrictions must be clearly defined, specific, necessary, and proportionate to the threat to interest protected,\u201d the statement added.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has threatened to take legal action against the government of President Muhammadu Buhari if they fail to immediately reverse suspension of Channels Television within 48hours. The National Broadcasting Commission, NBC on Monday fined Channels TV N5million for allowing a leader of the Indigenous people of Biafra, IPOB to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":344539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[2658,10489,6312],"class_list":["post-344538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-a","tag-channels-tv","tag-serap"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=344538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/344539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=344538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=344538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=344538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}