HURIWA has applauded the Federal High Court Abuja, for stopping the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) from imposing fines on broadcast stations in the country.
Court had on Wednesday banned the NBC from imposing fines on broadcast stations.
In a statement, by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, commended the Federal High Court Abuja division for swiftly halting the rapid advancement towards dictatorship by the regulator of the Nigerian Broadcasting industry known as the National Broadcasting Commission.
In a judgment, Justice James Omotosho voided the N500, 000 fines imposed by NBC on 45 broadcast stations on March 1, 2019.
Justice Omotosho was of the view that NBC, not being a court of law, lacked power to impose sanctions as punishment on alleged erring broadcast stations.
The judge held that the NBC Code, on which the commission relies to impose sanction, is in conflict with Section 6 of the Constitution that vested judicial power in the court of law.
He said the court would not sit idle and watch a body imposing fine arbitrarily without recourse to the law, adding that the commission did not comply with the law when it sat as a complainant and at the same time, a court and a judge on its own case.
The judgment was on a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1386/2021 filed by a group, the Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda.
HURIWA said the judgment is a val8dation of the position of the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA which had severally warned the NBC to stop usurping the constitutional powers of the Court by playing the illegal role of a regulator, a Prosecutor, judge in their disagreements with private television and broadcast stations. Besides, HURIWA said the decision is remarkable in such a way that pluralism of opinions and the exercise of the freedoms of expression and information is enhanced and the duty of the media as enunciated in section 22 of the 1999 constitution is further re-emphasized.
