The Presidential Campaign Council of the
All Progressives Congress (APC) has
pleaded with the National Broadcasting
Commission to sanction Arise News and
Channels TV.
APC petitioned NBC saying Arise TV and
Channels Television reported fake news on
the APC Presidential Candidate Asiwaju
Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
A statement by the Director of Media and
Publicity of the council, Mr Bayo Onanuga
in Abuja on Monday said that a petition
signed by the Special Adviser, Media,
Communications and Public Affairs of the
PCC, Dele Alake and addressed to the
Director-General, Balarabe Shehu Ilelah
accused the two television station of
breaching broadcast codes with their
actions.
ads
The petition read:
“The case in question, which did not indict
our candidate, has since been overtaken
by events after interrogation and
correspondences between then Inspector
General of Police Tafa Balogun in 2003
and the United States government.
The US
Justice Department in a letter dated 4th
February 2003, issued by the Lagos
Consulate of the United States Embassy
cleared our candidate. The letter was
signed by Michael Bonner, the Consulate’s
legal attache.
“The Campaign Council was therefore
surprised that certain media houses, such
as ARISE News and Channels TV among
others, went ahead to transmit and
broadcast issues purportedly indicating
our candidate in violation of section 3,3 I
of the Code which says that:
ads
“The Broadcaster shall
(a) Ensure that any information given in a
programme in whatever form is,
“We believe that the operators of the
stations, by their professional standing,
should have access to research platforms
to verify the information before dishing it
to the public,” the petition read.
It further accused both stations of using
the already cleared document in their
interviews of Festus Keyamo SAN and the
spokesman of the opposition PDP
respectively.
Both stations, the petition said, went
further to broadcast a fake letter in
circulation, purportedly issued by the
Independent National Electoral
Commission, stating that the electoral
body was investigating Tinubu.
This was also against the NBC code, which
forbids broadcasting fake news in the
words of Alake.
“Notwithstanding the broadcast of the
falsehood peddled by opposition elements,
ARISE TV and Channels TV went ahead to
transmit and circulate a fake letter
insinuating that the Independent National
Electoral Commission has initiated an
investigation of the APC Presidential
candidate premised on the fake letter in
circulation.
“Section 5.1.2 states that ‘The Broadcaster
shall present news as factual and correctly
and fairly without
(a) Distortion,
Exaggerations or Misrepresentation.
“Section 5.1.3 further states that ‘Fake
News is.
“The fake INEC letter has been proven to
be fake and this breach is tantamount to
disinformation.”
The Council listed other infractions against
Arise TV which has been known to carry
fake reports against Tinubu.
“Arise TV has admitted guilt to this in a
broadcast a few days ago. We make bold
to say that in 2014 the AIT transmitted a
TV documentary “The Lion of Bourdillon”
to which NBC sanctioned it and it
apologised to the victim.
“However, only last week Chief Bode
George, a chieftain of the PDP in an
interview on Arise TV referred to materials
from the documentary to vilify our
Presidential candidate in breach of the
Code and the apology granted the victim.
“These breaches attract a sanction of
Class B and we implore the National
Broadcasting Commission to invoke the
aforementioned sections to penalize ARISE
TV and Channels TV for breach of the
Broadcast code. Section 5.3.3 of the code
states that
“The Broadcaster shall (b) in
using Political materials for News and
current Affairs Programmes avoid hate
speech, inflammatory, Derogatory and
Divisive remarks or Allusions’.”
The party said the events “vilified and
denigrated” Asiwaju Tinubu as an indicted
offender and lawbreaker in the US”.
As a matter of seeking justice for the APC
presidential candidate, the PCC is asking
NBC to invoke the appropriate sanctions
against the offending television stations.
“Our Presidential candidate was vilified
and denigrated as an indicted offender and
lawbreaker in the US court case by ARISE
TV and Channels TV during their
broadcasts in the last week, such as The
Morning Show and Politics Today
respectively.
“Section 3.1.2 of the Nigeria Broadcasting
Code also states that-
‘The Broadcaster shall not transmit any
programme, programme promotion,
community service announcement or
station identity which is likely in any
circumstance to provoke or perpetuate in a
reasonable person intense dislike, serious
contempt or severe ridicule against a
person or groups of people
“For the effect of reference of powers to
sanction erring broadcasters, The Code
states in Chapter One, Section 1.1
(h) ‘The
Power to establish and disseminate the
code is derived from the provisions of
Section 2 (1) (h) of the NBC Act, which is
its enabling law.
“We hereby request the National
Broadcasting Commission to sanction the
offending Stations in the name of justice
and the protection of the rights of our
candidate as well as avoidance of future
reoccurrence,” Alake said in the petition.