Court Stops NBC from imposing fines on broadcast stations

The Abuja Federal High Court sitting has stopped the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) from imposing fines on broadcast stations in the country.

Justice James Omotosho gave the order in his ruling this Wednesday while voiding the N500,000 fines imposed by the NBC on 45 broadcast stations, including AIT, on March 1, 2019.

The trial judge while delivering ruling in a suit filed by a group, the Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda, held that the NBC, is not a court of law and so lacked the power to impose sanctions as punishment on alleged erring broadcast stations.

The court held that the NBC Code, on which the commission relies to impose sanction, is in conflict with Section 6 of the Constitution that vested judicial power on the court of law and the court would not sit idle and watch a body imposing fine arbitrarily without recourse to the law.