But following criticisms by Nigerians, the senator said he would amend the bill to remove death penalty as the maximum punishment for hate speech. Hike in hate speech fine unconstitutional attempt to gag the media – NBAThe NBA described the astronomical increase in the hate speech fine in the newly introduced broadcasting code as an unconstitutional attempt to gag the press. I am not sure increasing the penalty from N500,000 to N5m is the best way of discouraging hate speech. He said there were agencies of government that could enforce the crime of hate speech and there were already relevant laws that addressed the issue of hate speech. Quite frankly it is not okay because there are other regulatory agencies that deal with hate speech.

Source: Punch August 05, 2020 02:15 UTC