The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) was yesterday suspended temporarily, the shutdown of broadcast stations indebted to the commission.
In a statement issued in Abuja, the Director-General of the NBC, Balarabe Shehu Ilelah recalled that the NBC had on Friday, August 19TH, 2022, issued a shutdown notice to licensee indebted to the commission.
Ilelah also said that following the ultimatum, the NBC received positive responses from the debtor licensees, including big players in the broadcast industry.
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‘Sequel to a follow-up meeting held with Executives of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), and other critical stakeholders in the industry, the commission has decided to temporarily suspend the shutdown of the indebted Broadcast stations all over the country.
‘We express our profound appreciation to the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria, the affected licensees and Broadcast Stakeholders for their responses and interventions. We, specifically, thank DAAR Communications Ltd and Silverbird TV/Rhythm FM for their responses,’ Ilelah said.
Ilelah had further revealed that the commission was not unaware of the difficulties the shutdown must have caused the operators and other stakeholders ‘but must state that the commission will always operate within the National Broadcasting Commission Act, Cap. N11, Laws of the Federation, 2004.’
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) had earlier come out to vent against the recent decision of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, to slam some infractions and revoke the licenses of over 52 broadcast stations in Nigeria due to media mishaps.
It has also been recalled that NBC had announced that it would be revoking the broadcast licences of Silverbird TV, AIT, Raypower FM, and Rhythm FM, amongst others too.
The Director-General of the NBC, Mallam Balarabe Shehu, who had made the disclosure on Friday, had also noted that the development followed the failure of the media houses to renew their broadcast licences.
Reacting, SERAP in a tweet threatened to sue NBC if they do not reverse the decision.