Media groups to challenge court ruling on NPC decree

The Nigeria Press Organisation (NPO) says it will challenge the decision of the appeal court to uphold the the Nigerian Press Council decree, which gives the government the power to regulate the media.

After a meeting of the NPO, which consists of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), the body also promised to work with the national assembly to get suitable self-regulation of the nation’s press council.

NPO said that after exhaustive deliberation, it decided to “appeal the December 4, 2015, decision of the appeal court at the supreme court of Nigeria immediately”.

“To work with the national assembly to get a suitable self-regulatory press council law for professionals in Nigeria.

“Members of the NPO shall NOT nominate members into the board of the press council until the final determination of the case of the supreme court of Nigeria.

The NPO encouraged “the present administration to come on board with the NPO to get an acceptable self-regulatory Nigeria press council law at the national assembly.”

In the statement, signed by its president Nduka Obaigbena, NPAN said: “The executive, in the spirit of democracy, should reject the NPC decree as it was a product of the military regime and not in tandem with democratic norms and recent technological developments.”

The NPO has been in court since 1999, against the military decree, which established NPC during the military era.

In February 2010, the federal high court sitting in Lagos declared the decree as “unconstitutional, null and void”.

On December 4, 2015, Chinwe Iyizoba of the appeal court upturned the ruling of the federal high court, saying the decree was “a necessary and justifiable law in a democratic government”.

The case is now to be finally decided by the supreme court of Nigeria.