The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) on Wednesday said the shutdown of five broadcast stations in Zamfara State by Governor Bello Matawalle, last weekend, for alleged violation of professional ethics, was a descent into anarchy in the country and should never happen again.
According to a statement issued by its Programme Director, Ayode Longe, MRA stated, “It is most disheartening that following the bad example set by the Federal Government in its intermittent censorship of broadcasting stations in abuse of its power and authority, the Zamfara State Governor now believes that the broadcast media are fair game in his undemocratic manoeuvring to gain a political advantage to the extent that he is shutting down even stations owned by the Federal Government.”
The state government had on October 15, 2022, issued a statement through the Commissioner for Information, Ibrahim Dosara, announcing the immediate shutdown of three television stations and two radio stations in the state, namely: the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) owned Pride FM radio, Gamji Television, Gamji FM radio, and Al’umma Television, claiming that the affected media houses attended a rally organised by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state despite an Executive Order banning political rallies for security reasons.
Matawalle specifically directed security agents to arrest any staff member of the affected stations who attempts to go into the stations to perform any duty.
Insisting that the state government’s action remains illegal, unconstitutional and obscene abuse of power, Longe noted that it is only in a lawless society that a government would even contemplate shutting down a media organisation for performing its professional and constitutional duty of covering a political event by a rival political party and proceed to do so.
Longe also stated, “There is absolutely nothing unprofessional in the action of the broadcasting stations in covering a political rally by an opposition political party, even if the purported ban on political rallies by the Governor was legally done.
“The fact that the rally took place at all despite the purported ban by the Governor is itself a newsworthy event, and the media ought to cover and report it. There is nothing in the Code of Ethics for Journalists or the Nigeria Broadcasting Code or any Law currently in force in Nigeria that makes the action of the broadcasting stations unprofessional or unethical, and it is not within the authority of the Governor to establish professional or ethical codes for the media.”
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