Iredia, who is a veteran journalist, said this on Wednesday on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Wednesday while reacting to the controversy generated by the new fine for hate speech, which was increased from N500,000 to N5m. Everybody expects a broadcasting commission to be an autonomous body that has no place in politics. The Minister of Information; is he the Director-General of the NBC? “When the minister is speaking, there is no way broadcasters can see that the regulator is speaking. He argued that criticism could also be tagged hate speech and thus the broadcasting code could be subject to abuse.

Source: Punch August 06, 2020 00:22 UTC