Coalition wants radio broadcasting freed from govt control

IN celebrating the first World Radio Day, a coalition of civil society groups has said that to maximise the potential in radio as a voice for the people and an instrument for socio-economic and political development, steps should be taken to free radio broadcasting in Nigeria from government control.

At a forum to mark the day in Lagos yesterday, the Managing Director of City FM, Mr. Kevin Ejiofor, said while it is good to come up with days to mark issues in the society, the themes are usually slogans, and often times, only little efforts are made to domesticate them in the true meanings and apply them in the context of the affected countries.

“The UNESCO said government and other stakeholders should make sure that they celebrate the day, acknowledging the power of radio as a means for cohesion and information sharing. But you know that in Nigeria, the professionals are to be blamed in the real sense. We do not promote radio really for its own value; we contextualise radio into some business. The real value of radio by which it provides opportunities for people to exchange information and the community to talk within itself is not real in Nigeria,” the former FRCN director said.

The group, which called for the transformation of publicly-owned radio stations into public service outfits, said steps should be taken by federal and state governments to review the laws establishing radio stations to guarantee their editorial independence and remove them from the control of partisan political interests and authorities.

“Measures should be taken to ensure that the stations are managed by independent boards whose members have no political affiliations, and have security of tenure. Funding arrangements for the stations should be adequate such as to insulate them from manipulation or control by political or other sectional interests,” Ejiofor said.

In the communiqué jointly signed by Akin Akingbulu for Nigeria Community Radio Coalition (NCRC), Lere Oyeniyi for Institute for Media and Society (IMS), Edetaen Ojo for Media Rights Agenda (MRA) and Lanre Arogundade for International Press Centre (IPC), the alliance demanded that the directive of President Goodluck Jonathan regarding the licensing of community radios, given 15 months ago, be followed with the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) adhering to the time-frame by issuing the initial set of community radio licences not later than the second quarter of 2012.

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