The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has slapped a 5 Million naira fine on Trust Television Network (Trust TV) over a documentary entitled “Nigeria’s Banditry: The Inside Story”, which was shown on the station on the 5th of March, 2022.
NBC in its letter dated August 3, 2022, and signed by Director General, Balarabe Shehu Illela, accused Trust TV of airing a documentary that contravened some sections of the National Broadcasting Code.
However, in its reaction, the management of Media Trust Group the owner of Trust TV via a statement signed and released said they are still studying the commission’s actions and weighing their options.
The statement reads in part: “While we are currently studying the Commission’s action and weighing our options, we wish to state unequivocally that as a television station, we believe we were acting in the public interest by shedding light on the thorny issue of banditry and how it is affecting millions of citizens of our country.
“The documentary traces the root of the communal tensions and systemic inadequacies which led to the armed conflict that is setting the stage for another grand humanitarian crisis in Nigeria. It presents insights into the intersection of injustice, ethnicity, and bad governance as drivers of the conflict. It also aggregates the voices of experts and key actors towards finding solutions, including those of the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and Senator Saidu Mohammed Dansadau, who hails from one of the worst-hit communities in Zamfara State.
The statement added that other experts featured in the documentary include scholars like Professor Abubakar Saddique of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and Dr. Murtala Ahmed Rufai of the Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto, who have both studied the subject of banditry for a long period. The documentary also brought to the fore the horrifying stories of victims of banditry.