NIGERIA MEDIA MONITOR
MEDIA MONITOR #03-05 MONDAY, February 2, 1998. * JOURNALISTS BEATEN, BARRED * DAILY TIMES TO SACK STAFFERS * COURTS FREE TWO MEDIA MEDIA STAFFERS * POLICE BOSS REPLIES RIGHTS GROUP ON DETAINEES * NUJ SUSPENDS LAGOS SECRETARY * MEDIA MANAGER DISENGAGES * FUNDING NIGERIAN BROADCAST STATIONS. NEWSREELJOURNALISTS BEATEN, BARRED
Journalists on routine check at the Ekiti State Government Secretariat, Ado Ekiti, the state's capital, on Monday 26 January, 1998 were beaten along with other visitors and hundreds of civil servants who were visiting the secretariat for one official duty or the other by the soldiers who manned the secretariat's gate.
The State Military administrator had directed that civil servants must report to their offices latest by 7.30am. In enforcing the directive, the soldiers resorted to indiscriminate beatin, harassment and barring of all categories of people visiting the secretariat after 7.30 am. One of the soldiers retorted, "You are not allowed to go in here either you are a journalist or not ---Go back, I say go back".
DAILY TIMES TO SACK STAFFERS
About 1,125 staffers of the government-owned Daily Times, representing 45 per cent of the total work force of the company, are to lose their jobs.
Justifying the action on 22 January 1998 during a press conference, the sole Administrator of the company, Mr. Peter Enahoro, said the exercise which was with immediate effect, is part of the stringent measures aimed at straightening the company's activities as a commercial enterprise. He claimed that the company could no longer depend solely on the government for funds, and there was need for reorganisation in order to put the company on a sound footing.
He said the exercise was being carried out on the advise of consultants, and several criteria which include diminishing productivity over a period of time, indiscipline, unauthorised absence from duties, fraud and fraud-related cases, and dereliction of duties.
The administrator, however, informed that the remaining workers would benefit from a comprehensive and enhanced new salary structure which would restore the Daily Times to its prime position as a competitive employer in the media industry.
COURTS FREE TWO MEDIA STAFFERS
The charge of sedition preferred against the Ondo State Correspondent of the Daily Monitor newspaper, Mr. Femi Afolabi, has been struck out by an Akure Chief Magistrate Court presided.
The journalist was arrested and detained on 15 December, 1997 and arraigned before a magistrate court on 18 December 1997. He was charged with sedition by the retired Chief Judge of Ondo State Justice Sydbet Afonja following a story he wrote in the Daily Monitor of 15 December 1997 titled "Chief Judge Dares State Government - You Can't Send Me On Leave".
The case was struck out following the voluntary withdrawal by the complainant: Justice Sydney Afonja himself.
Similarly, the conviction of The Punch circulation officer, Mr. Christopher Useni in Asaba, Delta State, on Saturday January 10, by a mobile state Environmental Sanitation Court, has been quashed. Useni N1,000 ($12) has also been returned to him.
The order for the was given by the Chief Judge of Delta State, Justice James Omo - Agege who said he was embarrassed by the report of the alleged conviction.
Relating his experience, Mr. Useni said he was at loss why the magistrate could sentence him despite his pleas of being a media man. He argued that by virtue of his job, he was free to move during the sanitation exercise in the course of performing his duties.
Useni was arrested by the sanitation officials in Asaba and arraigned before the court which convicted him and ordered that he be sent to prison until he paid the N1,000 ($12) fine despite identifying himself with his company identity card.
The Environmental sanitation exercise is a Federal Government programme observed nationwide on the last Saturday of every month from 7 am to 10 am offences relating to the exercise, like unauthorised movement during the period, are tried by Mobile Environmental Sanitation Courts. However, by virtue of their duties, journalists and some other professionals are exempted from the restriction.
IG REPLIES CDHR ON UNTRIED DETAINEES
The Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomasie says it is not his duty to prosecute detainees who have spent time in detention, as requested by human rights group, Committee for the Defence Human Rights (CDHR).
Alhaji Coomasie was responding to a petition from CDHR dated November 25, 1997 in which he was asked to prosecute some detainees held under Decree 2 for allegedly sabotaging the economy.
Reacting to the CDHR's petition through a Chief Superintendent of Police who is also his principal staff officer, Alhaji Coomasie said his role is defined by decree 2 of 1984 and decree 11 of 1994.
According to him, "with regards to suspects of the Failed Bank offences.... The power to prosecute is rested in the Attorney-General of the Federation."
The CDHR had complained that about 120 detainees were incarcerated in different prisons and detention centres in the country.
"We also wish to draw your attention to the fact that a long number of persons are currently being detained under Decree 2 for allegedly sabotaging the economy. Some of these persons have been in detention for upwards of two years without being tried.
"We therefore use this medium to call for the immediate arraignment of these category a detainees before the law courts so that those found guilty could be appropriately punished and those the courts might acquit of whatever charges that might be levied against them could be set free".
CDHR further said that the continued incarceration of the detainees without trial constitutes of flagrant violation of their fundamental human rights to freedom of movement and by implication also tells much on the image of the regime in the comity of nations. "Justice delayed is justice denied", CDHR had said in the petition.
NUJ SUSPENDS LAGOS SECRETARY
For failing to comply with its directive to withdraw law suits against the union, the Nigeria Union of Journalists has suspended the Lagos State council secretary, Mr. Lawrence Ojabo, as a member of the union.
In a faxed press statement from the national secretariat in Abuja, the assistant national secretary Mr. Amah T. Amah, said Ojabo's indefinite suspension followed his "anti-union activities" which would be properly investigated by the union's Ethics and Disciplinary Committee. The statement further read: "Within the period of investigations, he (Ojabo) is not allowed to participate in any union activities."
Ojabo, who was returned unopposed as state council secretary last August 9, was involved in a spate of litigations that followed the election. He led the campaign against the incumbent chairman, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, whose re-election was challenged by Mr.. Charles "Supo-Orija.
In September, Supo Orija went to court to challenge the legality of Arogundade's re-election. Arogundade was subsequently barred by the court from running the state council in his capacity as chairman.
Before the order on Arogundade was discharged last month, two other union members had dragged Ojabo to court, asking that his re-election be voided because his chapel - the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture - should have been merged with the Correspondents' Chapel because the ministry had moved its headquarters to Abuja.
Even after the national headquarters stepped into the Lagos State crisis, Ojabo filed a counter-motion against the state council and refused to withdraw the suit.
MACEBUH DISENGAGES FROM THE POST EXPRESS
Dr. Stanley Macebuh, media manager and scholar, has disengaged from The Post Publishing Company Ltd. Publishers of The Post Express.
Macebuh was the pioneer managing director of the company and editor-in-chief of The Post Express, the international newspaper which he midwifed in mid 1996.
Macebuh, 55, said he was "steppin aside" to allow younger talents to "inject new blood and fresher ideas" into the project. He was previously on an accumulated leave.
Although, he has disengaged from the company, Macebuh, however, remains a member of the board of directors of The Post Publishing Comapny Ltd. He also retains a working office in the company, where he is expected to come in once in a while and do some work so that the company would continue to benefit from his immense experience in newspaper management.
Indeed, Macebuh is regarded by many as the father of the quality newspaper in modern Nigerian print media history. He is reputed to have brought intellectualism into the Nigerian newspaper, which culminated in his creating and sustaining The Guardian to become "the flagship" of the Nigerian newspaper industry.
Before he helped found, The Guardian in 1983, Macebuh had worked with the Daily Time as editorial adviser. He attracted a talented crop of high quality professional journalists and non-journalists alike who reshaped the paper.
Between 1994 and 1995, Macebuh also had a stint in Kaduna at The Sentinel newsmagazine which he pioneered and an briefly managed before it went out of publication.
FEATURE
FUNDING THE BROADCAST STATIONS
By Bayo AtoyebuGenerally speaking, it is difficult to determine who pays for the cost of broadcasting. This can be looked at, again, at two levels; who pays for the provision of broadcasting the infrastructure and remunerations on the one hand and who pays for that intangible and ephemeral product, of broadcasting; the air time on the other. The 47 television station of governments, states and federal, as well as their 36 radios counterparts, depend on subvention in the main and supplement with advertising revenue. For the private open broadcasting, nine television and two radio stations depend on proprietor capital and advertising revenues while the 43 cable and two Direct Satellite Broadcasting depend on proprietor capital, subscription, and some pittance from sponsors. The common denominator here is advertising revenue which all are chasing.
Unfortunately, there is little to go round. Even those who get the adverts don't get paid early. This perhaps was the basis for the bell sounded in advance, by Chief Mike Ajegbo, Chief Executive of Minaj Systems that if financial institutions are not educated about the potentials and rationale to direct capital towards broadcasting, only stations having the federal might, as support, will be alive by 2010.
In the meantime, government has got tight-fisted about subventions to electronic media. Some others get their salaries paid by government and they are made to pay the little advertisement revenue into state consolidated revenue from where they get about N30,000 (&$350) to N50,000 ($590) quarterly. Private capital in its eagerness to recoup its investment is to impatient to wait for ten years, like CNN, before making profit.
But how else is broadcasting funded elsewhere? Here, let's take a look at United Kingdom, United States and France to illustrate parallels for Nigeria in the next five years and beyond.
At the onset of broadcasting in the United Kingdom, it was public service monopoly enacted in a charter and funded by licences fees in the family of BBC stations.
The Independent Television Authority law of 1954 created competition and replaced BBC monopoly with a competitive duopoly where ITA owned facilities on ground and independent producers were given franchise to run stations which depended on sourced advertisement.
The Sound Broadcasting Act of 1972 incepted commercial radio stations under Independent Broadcasting Authority to regulate programmes reactively with a "light touch" franchise. A year later in 1985, deregulation of Direct Broadcast Satellite, DBS, took place, and the franchising which followed 2 years later, led to stations like Sky, Music Box, Super Channel that made Britain an off shore base for European Satellite broadcasting.
The funding pattern is licence fees for the public service stations under the aegis of BBC, advertisement finance for IBA and ITA stations and pay per view subscription for Cable and Direct Satellite stations.
In the United States, the hub of free enterprise, broadcasting is largely private enterprise operated for profit and promoted by law and tradition. Nevertheless, government indirectly involves itself in both creation of programmes and transmission through the public or educational broadcasting services. These are non profit enterprise comprising over 300 stations.
Following Radio acts of 1910 and 1912 which led to many stations trying to broadcast, it became necessary to enact the Radio Act 1927 which formed the legal basis for a regulatory agency, the Federal Radio Commission, FRC. This was replaced in 1934 by Federal Communications Commission, FCC, our equivalent of NBC some how.
The US has a culture of Television. 98% of homes have television, 85% is said to have colour sets while 51% have two or more sets.
Funding is at three levels. Firstly, the private enterprise stations being profit oriented depend on larger audience appeal or ratings, to win advertisement revenue. Secondly, the public of educational TV are non profit oriented and they get government grants, private foundation gifts, and individual contributions. Although they may broadcast segments in support of corporations that give large gifts or cash by way of sponsors programmes, they do not take paid advertisements in the sense of commercial television.
These public stations also draw resources from a network-like body called Public Broadcasting Service.
Generally however, both the commercial and the public television are received freely by anyone with a working set. In other words, no licence fees are charged.
Thirdly, experiments with the idea of pay forms of television commenced in the 1950's and this culminated in subscription fees charged by cable TV and Satellite stations. Large and small network like companies have developed into Home Box Office (HBO).
Programmes beamed off orbiting satellite are received by local stations on a five metre dish and they feed them through cable to subscribers from whom they collect monthly subscription and share this 50-50 with the HBO.
Also for the local open television stations, apart from advertisement revenue, they get affiliated to any of the major networks, ABC, NBC, or CBS, get "network shows" free, and also get paid for transmitting national advertisement incorporated in network shows.
In France, broadcasting is regulated by a High Council of Audio-visual, CSA, incepted in 1986. This is supported by two affiliates, High Authorities of Audiovisual Communication and the National Council of Communications and Freedom. These equate with our NBC.
Broadcasting here is predominantly public series with some private involvement. There are national public stations like France 2 and 3; La Cinquieme-educational; ARTE-Franco-German; and nine RFO stations for overseas, as well as Radio France International and Radio France. The private stations include TFI, M6, while Canal Plus is a coded station received in Africa as Canal Horizon. There are 50 private television, about 1,280 radio operators as well as TDFI, TDF2, CFI and MCM Africa on Satellite. All of which are regulated by CSA.
Funding for broadcasting is through licence fees and commercial revenue. Licence fee for 1995 for instance, was 670 Francs for colour set and 430 Francs for black and white. Licence fees are shared among public television and radio stations in a bill of finances and disbursed by CSA.
In all these three nations there exists a high electronic media culture and a large audience appeal that is able to support and pay for broadcasting. Nevertheless, there still exits elements of government or public fund support and in two, licence and subscription fees are operated.
In Nigeria, the end users of broadcasting, the viewers and listeners either consume the service free, or some smart local governments are empowered to reap where they have not sown. Every kobo they gain is the heavy loss of the electronic media. Should this continue to be so?
In the next five years there should be legislation enacted to re-direct receivers licence fee to the electronic media. Looking at our mix of open stations, federal, state and private, NBC would be the appropriate parastatal to collect and re-distribute licence fee revenue to stations based on coverage area.
The local government should not be laid off completely. Rather, they should be brought in, as those at the crannies, an ally of NBC, to collect the fee in their area of authority. They have the infrastructure to collect while the NBC with its seven zones can coordinate the collection from the over 700 local governments. The local government could earn as much as 10% of whatever is collected; after all in the United Kingdom it is the British Post and Telegraph that collects the fees on the behalf of BBC and gets a percentage for its pains.
Looking back at the scenario in UK, USA and France, we see three levels of financing; licence fees and public or government fund mainly for public service broadcasting, advertisement revenue for private broadcasting and subscription or pay per view for closed broadcasting like cable and satellite.
If one is allowed the liberty of flying a kite here, one will categorize our stations not three: Those of the federal, those of the States and those that are private.
If it will not be turning back the arm of the clock, one could say: Restrict federal stations to subvention and restore educational service on them to support the falling standard of education. They can also share from licence fees.
For states stations let them compete with private stations for advertisement revenue, benefit from a percentage of licence fees and acquire grants from state governments for the public service carried out for them.
Those of the private pool on the open broadcast, compete with states for advertising revenue as well as benefit from licence fees depending on their coverage area, while those of the closed broadcast, cable and DBS, depend on subscription and sponsorship and NOT advertisements. Sponsorship here will be as discussed in USA.
Certainly, there would be those who don't like this, they are free to shoot down the kite, while we move on.
Now that private capital has come into broadcasting investment, the potentials at the Nigerian Stock Exchange could be exploited. A private media that is doing well could get quoted on the stock market to enable it source capital. Source: Vanguard, January 28, 1997.
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