The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) Thursday won the first of two appeals between it and the NBC over two judgments of the Federal High Court, presided over by two separate judges.
The appeals bordered on prohibiting the commission from further imposing fines on broadcast stations in the country.
In a unanimous decision, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja dismissed an appeal by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) seeking to overturn a Federal High Court’s judgment perpetually restraining it from imposing fines on radio and television stations and setting aside the fines it levied on 45 broadcast stations on March 1, 2019 for alleged breaches of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.
In the appeal, the NBC asked the Court of Appeal to overturn the judgment delivered by Justice James Omotosho on May 10, 2023, where he ruled that fines are sanctions imposed on a person who has been found guilty of a criminal offence and that under the law in Nigeria, only courts of law are empowered to impose sanctions for criminal offences.
The judge had on November 23, 2023, also dismissed NBC’s July 2023 motion to set aside the judgment.
The second appeal, lodged by the NBC against a similar judgment on January 17, 2024, delivered by Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, also of the Federal High Court in Abuja, is still pending before the same court.
In that appeal, the commission is contesting the judge’s decision in a suit instituted against it by MRA following its imposition of fines of N5 million each on a television station and three pay TV platforms in 2022 for allegedly undermining Nigeria’s national security by broadcasting documentaries on banditry in Nigeria.
The body in the suit challenged its powers to fine broadcasters, in the wake of a March 1, 2019 announcement by the Commission that it had imposed a fine of N500, 000 each on 45 broadcast stations for alleged contraventions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.
Following the commission’s failure to defend the suit, Justice Omotosho delivered judgment on May 10, 2023, ruling that fines are sanctions imposed on a person who has been found guilty of a criminal offence.
