The National Broadcasting Commission, NBC says it sanctioned 78 broadcasting stations between October and December, 2017.

A statement released by the Commission over the weekend showed that the affected stations breached several broadcast offences ranging from: musical with vulgar lyrics; use of NTBB Music; alcohol advertisement before stipulated time; voicing of a political jingle by a presenter, lack of aviation warning light and unverifiable claim to cure serious disease among others.

The statement showed that the sanction affected various stations from different zones in the county.

The fines imposed on the erring stations ranges from N100,000 – N200,000. Of the total number, 12 are from Uyo zone, 3 from Maiduguri, 3 from Lagos, 14 from Kaduna, 11 from Ibadan, 20 from Enugu, 10 from Abuja, 3 from Benin and 1 from Jos zones.

Meanwhile, the NBC, had on Thursday warned broadcast stations in the country to desist from broadcasting political campaigns and hate speeches or face the full weight of the law.

Mallam Ishaq Modibbo Kawu, Director General of the Commission, who handed down the warning in Abuja said that NBC is going to begin a phased Analogue Switch Off (ASO), in Plateau state and the FCT, by the end of the First Quarter of 2018.

He noted that it is wrong and also against the ethics of the profession for any broadcast station to broadcast campaign messages or programmes when the lid was yet to be lifted.

Kawu warned that media stations must do everything professional to promote democracy in the country.

He also warned against inciting messages and deliberate airing of inciting contents, which are capable of inciting the people against each other.

His words: “Permit me dear colleagues, to also take your time to remind our broadcasters, that as we approach the electioneering period, stations must do everything professional to promote democracy.

Broadcasters are reminded that they have a duty to respect all extant laws related to the reportage and coverage of the electoral process.

Don’t broadcast campaigns when the period for commencement of campaigns have not commenced.”

“We are disturbed by the pattern of insensitive and inflammatory broadcasts emanating from some broadcast stations, especially in their coverage of national crises, like the Herdsmen/Farmer crises.

“Just yesterday, we released the sanctions profile for Nigerian broadcast stations for the 4th quarter of 2017. Many stations have been fined for hateful and inciting broadcast. (The list is already on our website).

It is important to remind our presenters and so-called On-Air-Personalities (OAPs), that they must be professionally detached from the stories and reports of crises phenomena.

They are to offer platforms for Nigerians to present all the sides to issues in the news, not become the subjects of these stories, as they are wont to do on many programs.

This is especially true of political programs on broadcast stations.

“We have observed that some stations deliberately and repeatedly air very inciting contents long after the events break.

We have warned stations that they must follow the tenets of the Broadcasting Code. Having warned broadcasters, we shall follow up with appropriate sanctions should any station continue to violate the Broadcasting Code,” he warned.