IPC accuses NBC of usurping Buhari’s powers in license repeal act
The International Press Centre (IPC), a non-governmental media development organization, has frowned upon the National Broadcasting Corporation’s (NBC) revoking of broadcast licenses of 52 stations.
Prominent among the affected stations are African Independent Television (AiT), its radio subsidiary RayPower; Silverbird television, and its radio arm, Rhythms.
IPC, in a statement by Melody Lawal, its press freedom officer, said the NBC “exercised its powers arbitrarily without recourse to the public interest.”
“It also confirms our worry that NBC continously constitutes itself to the accuser, the prosecutor and the judge in its own case,” the statement added.
The IPC also criticized the agency for deploying security agents to the debtor stations. The organization stated the action is a usurpation of the “authority of the President and Commander-In-Chief and the National Assembly”
“IPC calls on NBC to exercise caution and ensure that it exhausts engagement channels before wielding a stick that may not only lead to thousands of job losses but also shrink the information dissemination space.
NBC should stop acting as a revenue generating agency that is unconcerned about the business environment of broadcast stations.
“Nothing in its mandate says that it cannot contribute to the sustainability of broadcast stations who are having their own share of the economic crisis plaguing the nation.”
