By Danlami Nmodu
#TrackNigeria – The National Broadcasting Commission, NBC has launched the 6th edition of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.Speaking at the event,NBC Director General,Mallam Is’haq Modibbo who was represented by Mall. Mujtaba Sada, the Commission’s Secretary said the latest edition was not an imposition as it was the product of collective efforts by the industry players. He also noted that the code has been enriched to address issues bordering on hate and dangerous speech, among others.
“It is therefore my pleasure to present the 6th Nigeria Broadcasting Code to our industry”, the DG’s representative said. He added, “This is the document that will guide our work over the next couple of years. The Nigeria Broadcasting Code is not an imposition by the regulator on the licensees. This is a document that the industry worked on collectively and it is a product of very exacting professional application. I implore our colleagues to work the straight and narrow path of professionalism which the Code prescribes. That is the only way that we can have a Nigeria broadcasting industry which would reflect the very best of our dear country”.
The DG’s address outlined how the latest edition evolved given the recent experiences and challenge in the industry over a couple of years.
He said , “When I was appointed the Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), in May 2016, it became very clear to me, that we needed to work fast on a review of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code. The background of the 2015 elections in Nigeria, which saw the democratic transfer of power from an incumbent government to the opposition of the first time in Nigeria, exposed problems which the application of the 5th Edition of the Code had not sufficiently captured. And the dynamism of the technologies applied in broadcasting and communications in general, needed to be constantly taken into the context of praxis in the industry, as well as the platform of regulatory direction which National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), must constantly work from.
“There was also the fact that very important tentative steps had been taken on the route of the Digital Switch Over (DSO), with the launch of a pilot phase of this historic project, in Jos in April 2016 and the subsequent launches of the DSO in Abuja, Ilorin, Kaduna, Enugu and Oshogbo up to February 2018. We are preparing launches in other locations around the country as well as preparing the definitive commencement of Analogue Switch Off (ASO), with the launch of the Digital Switch Over (DSO), in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and several other locations in the nearest future.
“Our preparatory work for the 6th Edition of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, became one of the first major assignments of my tenure, as Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC). So after the normal preparatory internal work, which was done by the Directorate of Broadcast Policy and Research of the NBC, we gathered at the retreat in Kaduna on the 9th of August, 2016, for the first level of Review work on the 6th Edition of the Code. What was different in the Kaduna exercise was that I insisted we broadened the base of participation in the review exercise, bringing into the loop of work, officers from the Assistant Director grade level. It was a more inclusive process, which assisted capacity building inside the Commission, as well as the deepening of the experiences of this cadre of workers, who in the long run, would be responsible for carrying forward, the traditions and institutional memory of the NBC, into the future. We also retained the traditional pattern of work, which tapped into the vast experiences of the veteran leaders of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) former Directors General and retired Directors.
The DG recalled that “At the Kaduna gathering, I had reminded our colleagues, that the Nigeria Broadcasting Code: “should reflect the very best elements of Nigeria’s democratic aspirations and should become document that is for and of the Nigerian people”. I also reminded that the work of reviewing the Code had to be put in a broad context that must be clear in our minds, especially with the changes taking place in broadcasting: “The world of broadcasting is definitively evolving from what we have always known, to a new era, with its peculiar challenges: the exciting possibilities as well as the frightening ghost that might accompany the (digital) transition.
According to him, “As regulators of Nigerian broadcasting, we are therefore at the forefront of the changes that digitization will bring forth, while also being caught up in the vortex of forces that the transition we are helping to bring about, might unleash. This is why the Nigeria Broadcasting Code has become even more essential as an instrument of regulatory work. It is the central instrument that helps to keep the industry on the straight and narrow path of the highest professional and ethical standards”. I then added that “We must have a Code that anticipates the challenges of the new era”. The work we did in Kaduna, knocked the Draft copy of the 6th Nigeria Broadcasting Code into the shape that became appropriate to present to the industry, at a gathering in Kano, from the 15th to the 17th of May, 2017. That brought together broadcasters; media intellectuals a well as representatives of civil society organizations from all over Nigeria. The Kano Stakeholders’ Retreat was a very representative gathering, and it was largely the conclusive phase of the work within the industry, except that internally, we held a last gathering to dot the Is and cross the Ts of the two previous gatherings, to arrive at the definitive document that has finally become the 6th Nigeria Broadcasting Code.
He disclosed that “The 6th Edition of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code has been enriched at three levels. Our Commission had commissioned a major study of hate and dangerous speech in Nigeria, against the background of the widespread abuse of the broadcasting standards, in the lead to the 2015 General Elections. Even then NBC, as the broadcasting regulatory institution, became sucked into the vortex of the controversies of that era in our national history. We therefore felt that we needed to strengthen the position of the Code, in respect of hate and dangerous speech.
“Similarly, new controversies emerged around the nature of local content, and the definition of what was acceptable as local content. It was clear, that the Nigeria Broadcasting Code needed to become strongly affirmative of the national aspiration to create and defend jobs in the creative industries within the Nigerian economy. And that patriotic, affirmative aspiration has been reflected in the letters of the 6th Nigeria Broadcasting Code. A final point of interest is related to the previous one, and that is in the manner that the 6th Nigeria Broadcasting Code has also reflected the conviction that our sports in general ought to get the advertising funding support that matches a reasonable percentage of the huge amount of advertising spend that supports foreign sporting activities,’ the DG said.
