NIGERIA MEDIA MONITOR

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#03-11 MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1998


*  PUBLISHER ARRESTED; TELEVISON CHIEF ASSAULTED
*  JOURNALISTS BEATEN; ARRESTED AT PRO-DEMOCRACY RALLY
*  DETAINEES'WIVES MEETING DISRUPTED
*  GOVT. RECALLS SUSPENDED TV BOSSES
*  MURDERED JOURNALIST BURIED; POLICE ARREST SUSPECTS
*  BROADCAST STATIONS MAY LOSE LICENCES
*  SUNRAY FOLDS UP; HERALD GOES PLC
*  REVIEWING CABLE AND SATELITE BRAODCASTING LAW

POLICE ARREST PUBLISHER OF THE RISING SUN
Publisher of The Rising Sun newpaper, Mr. Joshua Ogbonna,has been
arrested by the police.
Premier House communications, publishers of the paper,said in Lagos
March 11 that Ogbonna was picked up by policemen at about 2:p.m on 9
March, 1998 at the Apapa, Lagos offices of the company.Mr David
Maduako, a journalist with the newspaper  said the publisher was
arrested by two policemen from the homicide section of the Criminal
Investigation Department (CID) Ikoyi, Lagos.

Maduako said the policemen grave no reason for his arrest athough
they said they were sent by a deputy superintendent of police

He said however that the arrest might not be unconnected with a
series of articles on a proprietor of an Abuja-based hotel and father
of a  prominent pro-Abacha campaigner

The journalist explained that the articles dwelt mainly on the
activities of the hotel proprietor and his life style.

Maduako said the proprietor had earlier engaged the services of
officers and men of the now defunct police Headquarters, zone 6, Aba,
to attack the publisher at his Lagos residence.

POLICE ASSAULT TN JOURNALIST
(IFEX's  partner in Nigeria/IFEX - On 10 March 1998, Abdul Rahmn
Maliki, a journalist with Kwara State Television, was beaten by a
detachment of policemen in Ilorin, Kwara.

Maliki was in Ilorin to cover a protest march by students of Kwara
State Polytechnic over the increasing scarcity of fuel in the state.
The police were attempting to prevent the demonstration and media
reports of it when they spotted Maliki recording the event.


JOURNALISTS BEATEN, ARRESTED
Journalists were beaten and arrested by police operatives at the
venue of the pro-democracy rally organised in Lagos on March 3, 1998.

The rally was scheduled to begin at 3.00 pm but a large contingent of
heavily armed policemen had taken positions at the Yaba, Lagos, venue
of the rally in the early hours of the day. Their mission was to
prevent the rally from holding.

The first batch of journalists who arrived the venue at about 11.00
a.m to report activities preceeding the event were arrested by the
police. Another batch had a  raw deal during the rally proper in the
afternoon. The police attacked the organisers, participants, and
journalists.

Journalists affected in the day's violations are: 
Yusuf Olaniyonu, ThisDay newspaper (Arrested); Sunday Ode, New
Nigerian newspaper  (Beaten & Arrested); Emmanuel Ogunyale,
Photojournalist, Nigerian Tribune (Beaten & Arrested); Mrs Yewande
Oluchi, African Independent TV (Arrested); Kola Oshiyemi,
Photojournalist, News Agency of Nigeria (Beaten & Arrested); Chukudi
Nwabuko, ThisDay Newspaper  (Arrested); Robert Kajo, ThisDay
Newspaper (Arrested); Mustapha Isa, African Independent TV
(Arrested); Bassey Udo, Post Express - (Arrested); Monday Emoni,
Photo Editor, The  News/TEMPO - Beaten, Camera Smashed.

The television crew of the Degue Broadcasting Network (DBN) who
attempted to interview some youths at the gathering had their camera
damaged by the enraged security operatives.
Those arrested were released the same day.

POLICE DISRUPT DETAINEES' WIVES MEETING; SEAL OFF NUJ HOUSE
A meeting of wives of political detainees and prisoners was disrupted
by security agents on 7 March 1998.

A team of 40 uniformed and plain cloth security operatives, were
deployed to the premises of Excellence Hotel, in the Ogba district of
mainland Lagos, venue of the meeting.

They laid siege on the night before and sealed off the premises early
in the morning.

When the organisers and participants arrived, the stern-looking
operatives, brandishing riffles and pistols, prevented them from
entering the meeting venue and ordered them off the premises.

The meeting, organised by the Free Beko Kuti Campaign Committee was
to discuss the women's plight and strategies for coping with the
incarceration of their husbands.

The committee however reported that an alternative venue was
hurriedly organised and the workshop was held.

In attendance were Mrs Arit Igiebor (wife of exiled Editor-in-Chief
of TELL magazine, Nosa Igiebor), Mrs. Esther Kokori (wife of detained
Oil Workers' Union Secretary Frank Kokori), Mrs. Chinata Nwite (wife
of detained Senator Polycarp Nwite), Mrs. J.A Ajayi (wife of Col.
E.A. Ajayi, one of the military officers imprisoned over the alleged
1995 Coup), Mrs Osifo-Whiskey (wife of detained TELL magazine
managing editor). Others were Mrs Bunmi Ajibade (wife of Kunle
Ajibade, imprisoned editor of The News), and Miss Nike Ransome-Kuti,
( daughter of jailed Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti) and others.

Similarly, a press conference called by the Youth Rights Campaign to
highlight the plight of student's activities the Nigerian higher
institutions scheduled to hold at the Nigeria Union of Journalists
(NUJ) Press Centre, Somolu, Lagos on 8 March, 1998 was disrupted by
armed policemen who sealed off the venue. 

ONDO GOVERNMENT REINSTATES TV BOSSES
The assaulted and suspended General Manager of the Ondo State
Television (ODTV), Mrs. Dunni Fagbayibo, and the Director of Finance
Administration, Mr. Tunde Yusuff, have been recalled, following the
acceptance by the State Executive Council of the interim report of
the probe panel set up by the government to investigate the alleged
assault meted on them February 1998.

The secretary to the State Government, Prince Fioye Bajowa, was
directed to issue a letter lifting the suspension order on the two
officers in the wake of the crisis triggered off by the non-payment
of allowance to a youth corps member who is related to the driver of
the state Administrator, Navy Cdr. Anthony Onyearugbulem.

Addressing newsmen after a meeting of the the state executive
council, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr.
Olurotimi Akeredolu, said the panel, made up of four members and
headed by the Commanding Officer, 323 Air Defence Artillery Brigade,
Akure, Lt.-colonel  T.E Dong, accepted the report that the corps
member's stipend was not paid as at time of the incident.

He said that there was evidence that the Administrator's driver was
not responsible for the alleged assault but a soldier who did not
recognise Mrs. Fagbayibo.

The soldier, he said, was one of those newly posted to the Guard
House, which is a restricted area, saying the assault actually took
place in the Guard House and not the Administrator's office.

According to him, Cdr. Onyearugbulem summoned all the parties into
his office, listened to them and threatened to deal with any one
found guilty.

Following the executive council's decision, the two officers resumed
work on March 5.
MURDERED JOURNALIST BURIED, POLICE ARREST 3 SUSPECTS
Journalists from all over the country  March, 1998 in Abeokuta, Ogun
State bid farewell to the late Tunde Oladepo who was shot dead by
unidentified  gunmen on Thursday 26 February, 1998.

At his lying-in-state at the Abeokuta Golf Club (of which he was a
member) and the Ogun State NUJ Press Centre, virtually everyone
present wept. His widow, Shola, collapsed when she saw her late
husband's body but was quickly revived by friends. Oladepo is
survived by both parents, brothers, sisters and two daughters aged
three years and eight months respectively. He was buried in his house
in Ibadan later Oyo State in the day.

Meanwhile, the Ogun State Police Command claims it has arrested three
persons  in connection with the killing of Mr. Tunde Oladepo.  The
arrest on Tuesday 3 March 1998 was confirmed by the state
commissioner of police, Mr. Ogbonna Onowo. The commissioner claimed
that the suspects are in detention, but "because of the traumas the
widow is going through, we don't want to call her immediately to come
and identify them; we will invite her to come and identify if any one
of them (suspects) is among those who killed her husband"

PRIVATE BROADCASTING STATIONS MAY LOSE LICENSES
Radio, television and satellite redistribution licences granted some
stations to operate broadcasting businesses in Nigeria may be
withdrawn if certain criteria are not met by the stations before
June.

The licences granted five years ago will expire in June and the
Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has already commenced a
process of licence review and renewal which may see some of the
stations losing such licences.

This was disclosed by the zonal director of the NBC for Lagos Zone,
Mrs. Florence Didigu to newsmen in Lagos.

Although the stations to be affected and criteria could not be
ascertained, the commission earlier in the week concluded its first
round of public forum on private television stations in the country
after assessing DBN, Murhi International and ABG and moved to Ibadan
where Galaxy Television and West Midlands Communication will be on
focus.

A circular from the office of the director-general of the commission,
Dr. Tom Adaba and signed by the NBC's director of public affairs,
said that  the public were all invited to assess, make observations
and ask the stations' chief executives questions on their programming
mission, equity and fairness in news and political coverage, good
taste and decency, ethical advertising, quality of transmission or
other relevant issues.

According to Mrs. Didigu, a very crucial state in this procedure is a
public forum, where for the very first time in Africa, the viewing
and listening public will be given the opportunity to participate to
some extent in the renewal of broadcast licences.

13O WORKERS SACKED AS SUNRAY FOLDS UP
Sunray Group of Newspapers has finally folded up its publications
after more than six years of operations, throwing its remaining more
than 130 staff, including 42 journalists into the labour market.

The Group which took the Nigerian newspaper industry by storm in
1992, printing in full colour, an array of newspapers and magazines,
started witnessing dwindling fortunes in 1995, a situation which
gradually, but consistently worsened till last week, when the company
folded up.

Staff of the establishment,were issued "End of Service," letters
Wednesday 4 March, 1998, finally sacking those who survived an
earlier 60 per cent staff reduction of 1995 and 1996.

The management invited staff to a meeting, where it was announced
that the Sunray newspapers "could no longer be on the road for now".

Staff of the outfit, owed many months salary arrears, were stunned
last week when they got letters which stated that "management regrets
to inform you that the Sunray Newspaper could no longer be on the
road for now. As a result, your service to the company terminates
with effect from March 2, 1998".

Staff were advised to hand over all company property in their
possession to their heads of department to facilitate the
determination of their benefits in 90 days.

In a swift reaction, the staff rejected the 90 days payment gap,
claiming that the management had not been sincere with similar
pledges in the past.

The workers who addressed a press conference on the development on
Friday said that "after suffering from a series of financial
mismanagement and managerial ineptitude, the company finally died on
March 3, 1998.

"It should be noted at this juncture that we are not quarreling with
the proprietors' decision to wind up their company, but we are
extremely peeved by the callous way the action was carried out
without regard to the welfare of the workers, most of whom have
served the company since its inception in 1992," they stated.

HERALD TO GO PLC
If the proposal sent to Kwara State government is accepted, the
state-owned newspaper, The Herald will soon become a public liability
company.

The Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Kwara State
Printing, and Publishing Corporation (KPPC), publisher of the Herald
titles, Mr. Raheem Adedoyin, disclosed this March 9, in Ilorin, Kwara
State Capital, during a press conference.

Mr. Adedoyin said that a proposal to this effect had been forwarded
to the state administrator, Col. Peter Ogar.

He explained that the era when the government could fully provide the
needed funds for running a newspaper was gone, adding that "it was
high time government allowed individuals and corporate bodies to take
part in this".

FEATURE
CABLE AND SATELLITE BROADCASTING IN NIGERIA: TIME TO REVIEW THE LAW
(1) by Stephen Kola-Balogun
Cable and Satellite broadcasting is one of the major issues and
challenges facing copyright protection in Nigeria today. It has been
said that: "Satellites are playing an ever increasing part in
intercontinental telecommunications. Far reaching changes are taking
place in the distribution of pictures and sounds: technology is
gradually bringing about a revolution in the transmission of ideas,
whether of a political, informative, cultural, scientific or artistic
nature. The use of communication satellites for programme
transmission and exchange is changing the accepted approach to sound
and television broadcasting and is giving rise to legal problems
whose complexity is commensurate with the new possibilities for the
conquest of space  that have become available to mankind."

Although these observations by Claude Masoury were made over twenty
five years ago, the reality of this comments has just begun to dawn
upon us in Nigeria. Only last year, Nigeria joined the rest of the
world in watching one of the most spectacular and moving events of
this century in the funeral of Princess Diana of Wales. The entire
ceremony was beamed to the country live via CNN which millions of
Nigerians regularly watched through the various cable and satellite
operators spread across the length and breath of the country.

Not to be outdone or left behind, many local television showed clips
of the picture of the ceremony on their television stations later
that same day. In many instances, those pictures were pirated off the
cable and satellite operators. In the same vein, many leading cable
and satellite operators are also being accused of infringing the
copyright in the right of owners of works that are broadcast or
rebroadcast on our television sets. Clearly this area of intellectual
property law is becoming highly contentious.

Before analysing how adequate Nigeria Copyright Law is in dealing
with these issues, it is necesary for the benefit of those not
familiar with this form of technology to give an explanation of what
cable satellite broadcasting means and how it operates.

A broadcast is defined by section 49 (1) of the Copyright Act 1988
(hereinafter referred to as the Act) as a sound or television by
wireless telegraphy or wire or both or by satellite or cable
programmes and includes re-broadcast.

Cable programmes are defined by the same section as: Visual images
sounds or other information sent by means of television system
otherwise than by wireless telegraphy for reception:

* at the two or more places (whether for simultaneous reception or at
different times) in response to request by different users, or

* for presentation to members of the public.

Generally, although cable and satellite transmissions are
complementary and widely seen as the same, they are different in a
few material aspects.

Under cable technology, instead of radio waves being freely
transmitted over the air, signal are set along wide band cables
direct to individual receivers.

Previously, cable programmes were not regarded as broadcasts since
they do not occur by wireless telegraphy. (Section 39 (1) of the Act
which defines a broadcast as set out above appears to do away with
this distinction by bringing cable programmes within the definition
of a broadcast.)

Initially broadcasts were essentially terrestrial. The development of
satellite technology has brought about celestial broadcasting and
opened up new avenues for bringing television and radio service to
the home.

There are 2 main forms of satellite broadcasting: Fixed Satellite
Service (FSS). and

*Direct Broadcasting by Satellite (DBS).

Fixed Satellite Broadcasting is a radio-communication service via
satellite between earth station-at specific point. The programme
carrying signals are transmitted to the satellite and bounced back to
an earth station and then normally distributed by a cable distributor
to the recipient home. Examples of such cables distributors in
Nigerian are Multichoice Nigeria Limited and Disc Engineering but to
mention a few.

Direct Broadcasting by Satellite occurs where signals are transmitted
by the sender via the satellite directly for reception in individual
homes without any intervening earth station. The recipient must of
course have the equipment to receive the signal. Although rare in
Nigeria, a few notable Nigerians are known to have the equipment
which is characterised by large gigantic dishes.

With ever improving technology, the distinction between FSS and DBS
is becoming increasingly more blurred and difficult to sustain.

Section 39(1) of the Act brings cable programmes under the ambit of
copy right by including them within the definition of a broadcast,

This is further accentuated by Section 7(1) of the Act which states
that: Subject to this section, copyright in a broadcast shall be the
exclusive right to control the doing in Nigeria of any of the
following acts:

The recording and the rebroadcasting of the whole or a substantial
part of the broadcast.

In other words, any local television station or satellite and cable
operator who transmits or re-transmits a broadacst, must consider (if
any) the copyright interests in the works contained in the broadcast
and also the copyright in the broadcast itself. This section is not
limited to television broadcasts alone and includes radio broadcasts
and other forms of broadcast. Section 7(1) (a) refers to the whole or
a substantial part of the broadcast. The rest as to what is
substantial is a subjective one and may well have to be determined by
the court.

Section 7(3) of the Act states that the exception of fair dealings
for research, private use, criticism and review, reporting of current
broadcasting for educational purposes or for government use and the
public interest, etc as contained in the second schedule to the Act
shall apply to copyright in a broadcast, just as they apply to other
literary artistic and musical works. It is my view, that the
subsequent broadcast of the pictures of Diana's funeral for example
falls into at least two of the above categories. Local television
stations may also argue that a substantial part of broadcast was not
used and as such there was no copyright infringement. This we have
already noted will have to be determined subjectively by the courts.

Ordinarily consent for the use of copyright works in a broadcast
should be obtained before there is reception by the general public.
This is further outlined in section 7 (1) (b) and (c).

Section 7(1) (b) states that a copyright owner can control the
communication to the public of the whole or a subtantial part of a
television broadcast, either in its original form or in any form
recognisably derived from the original: while section 7 (1) (c)
states that a copyright owner of a broadcast can control the
distribution to the public for commercial purposes of copies of the
work, by way of rental, lease, hire, loan or similar arrangement.

It should be noted that Section 39 (1) of the Acts defines
"Communication to the public" as including in addition to any live
performance or delivery, any mode of visual or acoustic presentation
but does not include a broadcast or re-broadcast".

Section 7(1) (b) and (c) are therefore not directly relevant to cable
and satellite broadcasting. Of particular significance is section 7
(1) (a) which must be very carefully construed. For example, are the
words recording and re-broadcasting as contained in Section 7 (1) (a)
conjunctive? Assuming they are conjunctive, the provisions of section
7 (1) (a) would conveniently cover anyone who records off radio or
television stations (whether terrestrial, cable or satellite) and
then subsequently re-broadcasts the whole or a substantial part of
that broadcast.

If on the other hand, the prosivions of section 7(1) (a) are not to
be regarded as conjunctive, then the issue that has to be considered
is what happens where one person records a broadcast and another
person re-broadcasts it. For example, a local broadcasting station
like NTA may give out signals to a cable or satellite operator to
transmit its broadcasts. The cable or satellite operator will usually
respond to those signals by hooking on the local television station
by re-broadcast in their programmes.

In situations like this, the satellite operators do not record the
local programmes themselves. This is done by the local television
station. What the cable or satellite operators do, is re-broadcast
such local programmes on their network when given the signal to go
ahead.

This could create legal problems. The owner of the copyright in a
broadcast may not necessarily be the owner of the copyright in the
works contained in the broadcast. The owner of the copyright in the
works contained in the broadcast in most instances is the artist and
he may feel aggrieved at the fact that his works are being
re-broadcast on a television station terrestrial, cable or satellite
without his consent.

It would appear unwise for such an artist to institute an action
against the broadcasting authority which rebroadcast his work i.e a
cable or satellite operator without first joining the original
broadcasting authority. On the other hand, the re-broadcasting
authority may also argue that there is no contractual arrangement
between them and the artist, or that in any case they were not aware
of any reasonable ground for suspecting that all necessary consents
had not been obtained.

It is perhaps for these reasons that section 15 (2) and (3) of the
Act provides useful solutions to these problems by stating as
follows: 15 (2) Where an action for infringement of copyright brought
by the copyright owner of an exclusive licensee relates to an
infringement in respecting of which they have concurrent rights of
action, the copyrights owner or the exclusive licensee may not,
without the leave of court, proceed with the action unless the other
is either joined as a plaintiff or added as defendant.

15 (3) Where in an action for infringement of copyright, it is proved
or admitted that an infringement was committed but that at the time
of the infringement the defendant was not aware and had no reasonable
ground for suspecting that copyright subsisted in the work to which
the action relates, the plaintiff shall not be entitled under this
section to any damages against defendant in respect of the
infringement, but shall be entitled to an account of profits in
respect of the infrigement,  whether or not any other relief is
granted under this section.

In certain specific instances, there is no copyright control in works
contained in a lawful broadcast. It may be useful to note that the
Act does not define a lawful broadcast and the easier interpretation
would perhaps mean any broadcast that is not unlawful. 
Source: The Guardian, March 10, 1998


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