Press Council Bill anti-people, unconstitutional – Stakeholders

Stakeholders in the media industry have described the Nigerian Press Council Bill 2018 as anti-people, draconian, unconstitutional, subjudice and a carry-over from the military.
In a statement signed by Feyi Smith on behalf of Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the media stakeholders reaffirmed their opposition to the Bill, noting that it should never be allowed to see the light of the day.
Speaking at the public hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Information and National Orientation, chaired by Sulaiman Adokwe, Mallam Isa Funtua, disclosed that a pending court case on the Press Council should have been settled before embarking on the Bill.
The President, Nigeria Press Organisation, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, noted that the bill sought to create the impression that the Nigerian media community did not take the issues of ethics and self regulation seriously whereas it was a well known fact that the mechanisms actually exist including the Code of Conduct of Journalists in Nigeria, the Ethics Committees of the NUJ and NGE and the recently launched Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage endorsed by media stakeholders.
He assured the nation that as responsible members of the Nigerian society , the media without equivocation “will continue doing all it could to further promote media ethics, professionalism, transparency, accountability and self-regulation, to ensure that the public interest is served at all times.”
He listed other areas of objections of the media to the bill as its being unconstitutional as it runs against the principles and tenets of the rule of law, its being draconian and anti-press freedom, as it is an amalgamation of the obnoxious Public Officers Protection Against False Accusation Decree No. 4 of 1984 and the Newspapers Registration Decree 43 of 1993, both vestiges of the dark days of military rule and therefore incurably and irreparably bad, inconsistent with values of our democratic society.
The chairman of the committee, Senator Adokwe, said that the National Assembly had no intention to cripple the press but to make it vibrant.
He said he, along with members of the committee which included Senators Ben Bruce and Dino Melaye, were strong believers in press freedom and would do nothing to abridge same.