N5M Channels Fine: SERAP drags Buhari to court
In response to the N5 million fine the federal government imposed on Channels Television, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) have filed a lawsuit against President Muhammadu Buhari.
Channels Television was recently fined N5 million by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) for doing an interview with Datti Baba-Ahmed. The interview, according to the NBC, “violated the NBC code.”
In the lawsuit, both organisations ask the court to “declare the N5 million fine imposed on Channels Television over a recent interview with the Labour Party vice-presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional.”
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The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and Mr. Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, have both been named as defendants in the lawsuit.
However, in the suit number FHC/L/CS/616/2023 filed last week at the Federal High Court, Lagos, the plaintiffs are asking the court to determine “whether the NBC code used to impose a fine of N5m on Channels TV and the threat of ‘higher sanctions’ is not in inconsistent and incompatible with access to information and media freedom.”
The plaintiffs are asking the court for “a declaration that the NBC code used by the NBC to impose a fine of N5m on Channels TV and the threat of ‘higher sanctions’ is arbitrary, unconstitutional and unlawful, as it violates the rights to a fair hearing, freedom of expression, access to information and media freedom.”
The plaintiffs are seeking “an order setting aside the N5m fine for being inconsistent and incompatible with section 22, 36 and 39 of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
The plaintiffs are also seeking “an order directing and compelling the NBC to reverse its arbitrary and unlawful decision to impose a fine of N5m on Channels TV forthwith.”
In the suit, the plaintiffs are arguing that: “the media has the task of distributing all varieties of information and opinion on matters of general interest and public interest.”
