The Federal High Court in Abuja today declared null and void the provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code authorising the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to impose fines on broadcast stations for alleged breaches of the Code as it ruled that administrative and regulatory bodies could not exercise judicial powers.
Delivering judgement in a suit instituted by Media Rights
Agenda (MRA) against NBC following the Commission’s imposition of fines of N5
million each on a television station and three pay-TV platforms in 2022 for
allegedly undermining Nigeria’s national security by broadcasting documentaries
on banditry in Nigeria, Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia held that the NBC, not
being a court of law, acted above its powers by imposing such fines.
The judge commended MRA for its legal challenge of NBC’s
action and issued an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Commission
or anyone acting on its behalf from further imposing any fine on any media
platform or broadcast station in Nigeria for any alleged offence committed
under the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.
Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia set aside the fines imposed by NBC
on 3 August 2022 on Multichoice Nigeria Limited, owners of DSTV; TelCom
Satellite Limited (TSTV); Trust-TV Network Limited; and NTA Startimes Limited
for broadcasting a documentary about the state of banditry and security in
Zamfara State, saying the regulator’s action was wrong and unjustifiable in a
democratic society.
Abuja-based human rights lawyer, Uche Amulu, filed the suit
on behalf of MRA asking the court to hold, among other things, NBC’s action of
imposing a fine on each of the media platforms and the station for broadcasting
a documentary about the state of banditry and security in Zamfara State is
unlawful and unconstitutional and has a chilling effect on the freedom of media
to impart information and ideas.
MRA contended that it would deter the platforms and station
from reporting the true state of affairs regarding the security situation in
Nigeria, and therefore constitutes a violation of the rights of MRA, its
members, and other citizens of Nigeria to freedom of expression, particularly
their rights to receive ideas and information without interference, as
guaranteed by the Constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s
Rights.
MRA also sought a declaration that the procedure adopted by
the NBC in imposing the fines is a flagrant violation of the rules of natural
justice and the right to fair hearing under Section 36 of the Constitution and
Article 7 of the African Charter as the Commission is the drafter of the Code,
which provides for the alleged offences for which the media platforms and the
station were punished, and which empowers the NBC to receive complaints,
investigate and adjudicate on the complaints, impose fines and collect fines.
MRA contended that the NBC, not being a court of law and not
having been constituted in a manner as to secure its independence and
impartiality, has no power or competence to impose fines on broadcast stations
as punishment or penalties for the commission of an offence as the competence
to establish that an offence has been committed and to impose criminal
sanctions or penalties belongs to the courts.
Besides, it claimed, the NBC, not being the Nigerian Police
or a law enforcement agency, has no power to conduct a criminal investigation
or an investigation that could lead to criminal charges against the affected
media platforms and stations or the imposition of criminal penalties and
accordingly, that the investigation purportedly conducted by the Commission,
leading to the fines imposed on the media platforms and station for alleged
offences under the Nigeria Broadcasting Code is ultra vires, null and void.
MRA also urged the court to declare that the Nigeria
Broadcasting Code issued by the NBC, being a subsidiary legislation that
empowers it as a regulatory and administrative body to enforce the provisions
of the Code, cannot confer judicial powers or jurisdiction in criminal matters
on the Commission to impose criminal sanctions or penalties such as fines,
particularly as the Code was made by the NBC itself.
It urged the court to declare the fines unconstitutional,
ultra vires, null and void, set them aside and issue an order of perpetual
injunction restraining the NBC, its servants, agents, privies, representatives
or anyone acting for or on its behalf, from further imposing any fine on any of
the media platforms or station, or any other broadcast station in Nigeria for
any alleged offence committed under the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.
In her judgement, Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia agreed with all
MRA’s arguments and granted all the declarations and injunctions sought by the
organization. She, however, refused to grant the organisation’s claim for
N700,000 as costs it incurred in litigating the action; another claim for N2
million as general damages for NBC’s infringement on its rights as well as a
request for N1 million as punitive damages for the Commission’s “outrageous
conduct in abusing its powers and arbitrarily imposing fines on broadcasting
stations”.
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