By Isaac Aregbesola
The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has admonished broadcast stations in the country to regulate their operations and abide strictly by the National Broadcasting Code or risk sanctions.
The Director-General of NBC, Mr Charles Ebuebu, gave the warning on Wednesday in Abuja at a Stakeholders’ Strategic Meeting convened by the commission.
The director-general said the meeting was called to reaffirm standards that protect the public, the profession and broadcast stations from reputational and legal risks.
He frowned at the recurrent unethical practices by some stations and practitioners, reiterating that the NBC was poised at restoring the professional space.
Specifically, he said stations and practitioners must self-censure in line with the national broadcasting code which set the standards.
According to him, the NBC is not willing to wield the sledgehammer, if practitioners play by the rules and utilise the national broadcasting code as a professional covenant.
Specifically, Ebuebu noted that interviewers must be accountable, firm, fair, sequential, and verify claims by their guests.
“The NBC is poise at restoring the professional space between deference and hostility: hosts of programmes must be accountable and civil, avoid insults labels.
“A presenter who insults public officials is not demonstrating courage, but lack of control
“Civility is not timidity; inquiry becomes confrontation when presentation style slides from journalistic inquiry to personal attacks,’’ he said.
Ebuebu added that harassment of invited guests or confrontational stance against guests, violates professional courtesy and ethics
He equally cautioned against prioritising dramatic confrontation over substantive information gathering
The director-general urged broadcast stations to strengthen their editorial gates against political and security sensitive contents.
He, therefore, recommended pre-broadcast verification and checklist for sensitive contents’ review.
To buttress his point, Ebuebu decried the recent unethical publications of the body’s image of an Army General recently killed during an ambush by ISWAP in Borno.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that during question and answer session, the stakeholders stressed the need for the review of the national broadcasting code to align with modern trend.
They also called for NBC’s driven sensitisation of the code through regular training of practitioners.
The stakeholders also raised concerns on the safety of broadcast stations across the country and called for special protection from the government.(NAN)