Trust TV Fined N5m Over Documentary On Banditry

Trust TV Fined N5m Over Documentary On Banditry

EKO HOT BLOG reports that the Federal Government has slammed Trust TV, a broadcast arm of Daily Trust newspapers, with a N5m fine for a documentary it produced and aired on March 5, 2022.

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The documentary is titled, “Nigeria’s Banditry: The Inside Story”.

Management of the TV station said they have been fined a total of N5m by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), an agency of the federal government responsible for regulating broadcasting in Nigeria.

According to The Punch, which claims to have been informed by Trust TV of the fine, the sanction letter signed by the NBC Director General, Balarabe Shehu Illela, indicated that the action was taken because documentary contravened sections of the National Broadcasting Code.

Trust TV was quoted as saying: “While we are currently studying the Commission’s action and weighing our options, we wish to state unequivocally that as a television station, we believe we were acting in the public interest by shedding light on the thorny issue of banditry and how it is affecting millions of citizens of our country.

“The documentary traces the root of the communal tensions and systemic inadequacies which led to the armed conflict that is setting the stage for another grand humanitarian crisis in Nigeria. It presents insights into the intersection of injustice, ethnicity and bad governance as drivers of the conflict. It also aggregates voices of experts and key actors towards finding solutions, including those of the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and Senator Saidu Mohammed Dansadau, who hails from one the worst-hit communities in Zamfara State.

“Other experts featured in the documentary include scholars like Professor Abubakar Saddique of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Dr. Murtala Ahmed Rufai of the Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto, who have both studied the subject of banditry for a long period.

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“The documentary also brought to the fore the horrifying stories of victims of banditry.”

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