‘Terrorism documentary’: Court sets aside NBC’s N5m fine against Trust TV, MultiChoice

A federal high court sitting in Lagos state has set aside the fines imposed on Trust Television, MultiChoice Nigeria Limited, TelCom Satellite Limited, and StarTimes Limited for airing a documentary on banditry.

In a 50-minute documentary titled ‘The Bandit Warlords of Zamfara’, the BBC Africa Eye provided insight into the mindset of bandit kingpins, the booming kidnap-for-ransom industry, and how the ethnic conflict between Hausa and Fulani groups may have exacerbated the security crisis in Zamfara state.

In March 2022, Trust TV, an arm of Daily Trust Newspaper, published a special report and documentary which exposed major issues around banditry in Nigeria.

The federal government said Trust TV and the BBC would be penalised for “glorifying terrorism”.

The fines for DSTV, StarTimes and TSTV was because the platforms aired the BBC documentary on banditry.

However, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) filed a lawsuit marked FHC/L/CS/1486/2022 against former President Muhammadu Buhari; former minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed and the NBC.

SERAP and CJID asked the court for “a declaration that the imposition of fines on the media houses is unlawful and amounts to a breach of legality, necessity, proportionality principles”.

In a judgment delivered in June, Nicholas Oweibo, the presiding judge, ordered the NBC to “stop using the NBC Act and the Nigeria Broadcasting Code to impose fines, threaten to impose sanctions, harass and intimidate the broadcast stations and other independent media houses in the country”.

“A declaration is, hereby, made that the act of the defendants imposing a fine of five million naira each on the independent media houses is unlawful, inconsistent with, and amounts to a breach of the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality and therefore a violation of the rights to freedom of expression, access to information, and media freedom,” the court held.

“A declaration is, hereby, made that the use of the Broadcasting Code by the NBC to impose sanctions on the independent media houses for an alleged infractions without recourse to the court constitutes an infringement on the provisions of sections 6[1] & [6][b] and 36[1] of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 and Articles 1 and 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Nigeria is a state party.

“A declaration is, hereby, made that the provisions of the National Broadcasting Commission Act and the Nigeria Broadcasting Code which are arbitrarily being used by the defendants to sanction, harass, intimidate and restrict the independent media houses are inconsistent and incompatible with sections 36[1], 39 and 22 of the Nigerian Constitution, Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and are null and void to the extent of their inconsistency and incompatibility.

“A declaration is, hereby, made that the defendants lack the legal power and authority to impose penalty unlawfully and unilaterally, including fines, suspension, withdrawal of license or any form of punishment whatsoever on the independent media houses for promoting access to diverse opinions and information on issues of public importance.

“An order of court is, hereby, made setting aside the fine of Five Million Naira imposed by the Defendants, through the 3rd Defendant, each on Trust TV, Multichoice Nigeria Limited, TelCom Satellite Limited (TSTV) and NTA-Startimes Limited for televising the documentary by the British Broadcasting Corporation “BBC Africa Eye” titled “Bandits Warlords of Zamfara.

“An order of perpetual injunction is hereby made restraining the Defendants or any other authority, persons or group of persons from unlawfully shutting down, imposing fine, suspension, withdrawal of license or doing anything whatsoever to harass and intimidate or impose criminal punishment on the independent media houses or any of Nigeria’s journalists and media houses for promoting access to diverse information on issues of public importance.”