The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has queried the General Manager of the Ekiti State Radio Corporation over broadcast by the station inciting the citizens of Ekiti State not to welcome the President to the state.
The commission said the radio station has also allowed partisanship and unprofessional conduct in its reportage of political activities in the state.
The NBC made this known in a statement signed by its Director General, Malam Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, in Abuja on Wednesday.
“Monitoring reports available to the NBC indicate that ahead of the 2018 Gubernatorial Election, the Ekiti Radio has become highly unprofessional and dangerously partisan, especially in its reportage of the democratic process in Ekiti.
“The most recent infraction is the broadcast by the station inciting the citizens of Ekiti State not to welcome the President to the state. We find this as a breach of Section 5.2.7of the Code and 5.2.8’’, Malam Kawu said in the statement.
He said the Commission had earlier had cause to query the station’s General Manager ‘’who is also doubling as the spokesman of the Ayo Fayose campaign organization, in breach of Section 5.2.18 of the Broadcasting Code.’’
The NBC DG said while a broadcast producer may interact with politicians in the course of his professional duties, this, he said, should not be such, as to lead to the belief, that he is either a member or sympathizer of any political party.
He added that the Station has also consistently refused to balance its political programmes, often patronizing the State Governor and his party alone in breach of Section 7.6.8 of NBC code.
He said the code states that all broadcasters shall give equal access to all registered political parties or candidates on their facilities.
He said Section 5.2.7 of the code states that a broadcaster shall, in using political material for news, avoid taking inflammatory and divisive matter in its provocative form.
“The Commission has therefore reprimanded the station in very strong terms and shall impose further necessary sanctions.
‘’We are also monitoring closely for strict compliance’’, the NBC DG said.
