The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has slammed a two million naira fine on TVC for broadcasting presidential candidate Bola Tinubu’s hate speech against Labour Party’s Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party.
“The man who left here, he calls himself Peter Obi. We read in the Bible, that before cock crows 3 times, he will deny Jesus Christ. He denied, so how can he keep a promise to you if he cannot keep a promise to God,” NBC quoted Mr Tinubu as saying during his presidential campaign in Anambra State on 8January 31.
The campaign, deemed hate speech, was aired on TVC, owned by the APC presidential candidate.
On the same day, Mr Tinubu incited the public against Mr Abubakar by labelling him an unrepentant liar who abuses his Islamic faith. His words were aired on the TV channel as well.
“When you hear Atiku used the word Muslim and say ‘Wallahi, Talahi, you know what is in his heart? “na lie I lie”. Anytime you hear Atiku say Wallahi Talahi, just reply him say, na lie you lie.”
The commission also asserted that it was unprofessional for TVC to allow Festus Keyamo, mouthpiece of the Tinubu campaign, to make disparaging remarks against former president Olusegun Obasanjo and Mr Abubakar on their station.
Mr Keyamo was quoted as saying “Obasanjo and Atiku run a criminal enterprise, an empire of fraud in Abuja. At the same time that Ahmed Bola Asiwaju was toiling hard, beautifully and meticulously to rebuild Lagos, 2 criminals were stealing money in Abuja at the time…they both stole from the SPV account at that time.”
TVC was further accused of allocating more time to broadcast APC news without giving other parties the same time slot.
“On 10th October, 2022, your station started its news with 17 minutes of APC news and 1 minutes (sic) of PDP story with a video clip that did not play,” the commission pointed out.
“The worrisome trend has become a house style on your channel that enjoys a national coverage. It has gotten so unprofessional that Hate Speech, Inflammatory, Derogatory and Unfair comments are been broadcast on your station,” NBC said in the letter.
For breaching the NBC codes, “TVC News is hereby sanctioned and shall pay a penalty of N2,000,000.00 (Two Million Naira Only),” stated the letter signed by NBC director general, Balarabe Shehu Illelah, on February 3.
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