Just in: MRA floors FG as court bars NBC from imposing fines on broadcast stations

With immediate effect, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has been barred from imposing fines on “erring” broadcast stations in the country, a Federal High Court in Abuja ruled on Wednesday.

Ruling in an order of perpetual injunction filed by the Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Justice James Omotosho held that the NBC, not being a court of law, had no power to impose sanctions as punishment on broadcast stations.

Omotosho, in a judgment on Wednesday, also set aside the N500,000 fines imposed on March 1, 2019, on each of the 45 broadcast stations.

According to him, the NBC Code which gives the commission the power to impose sanction is in conflict with Section 6 of the Constitution that vested judicial power in the court of law.

He noted that “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, the court and the judge on its own matter.

Omotosho agreed that the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, being a subsidiary legislation that empowers an administrative body such as the NBC to enforce its provisions, cannot confer judicial powers on the commission to impose criminal sanctions or penalties such as fines.

Persecondnews recalls that the NBC had on March 1, 2019, imposed the sum of N500,000 each on 45 broadcast stations in the country over alleged violation of its code.

This action led to the Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda had, in an originating motion marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1386/2021, to sue the NBC as sole respondent in the suit.

In the motion by its lawyer, Noah Ajare, the group sought a declaration that the sanctions procedure applied by the NBC in imposing N500,000 fines on each of the 45 broadcast stations on March 1, 2019, was a violation of the rules of natural justice, as he sought an order setting aside the N500,000 fines purportedly imposed by the NBC on each of the 45 broadcast stations.

According to the lawyer, the fines were in violation of the right to fair hearing under Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Articles 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act (Cap AQ) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.