Minister tasks broadcast industry on professionalism

The Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has called on stakeholders at ongoing 2017 code review of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to ensure that the exercise reflected current change priority in the country.

He made the remark at the opening of the 2017 Stakeholders Review Retreat of NBC in Kano on Monday.

The minister, who was represented by the Director-General, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Malam Mansur Liman, said the main aim of the code was to ensure quality broadcasting to listeners across the country.

He said that the retreat was timely considering the need for the broadcast industry to meet the challenges that were expected to be framed out by the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting.

He said that in order to meet up with the emerging trends in digital broadcasting, the regulatory framework should be fully transited from analogue to digital so that the operators could be properly guided.

In his remarks, Kano State Governor, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, urged the stakeholders to address the issue of breach of ethics of broadcasting by politicians and producers of political programmes.

The governor, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Usman Alhaji, said ethics should be taken seriously, especially in radio stations which threatened democracy.

Welcoming the retreat participants earlier, Director-General of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Malam Ishak Modibbo, said that the commission planned to produce a document that would uplift the broadcasting environment of the present era.

He said that the commission was committed to ensuring that new techniques of regulating the broadcasting industry in the country, was strictly adhered to.