Bolaji Ogundele, Abuja
Media guru and the Chairman of the Board of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Alhaji Wada Maida has described penalties being contemplated for Hate Speech offenders as “going overboard”.
Maida, speaking Wednesday night at the Corporate Stakeholders’ Dinner organised by Kings Broadcast Limited, Owners of WE FM 106.3FM Radio, Abuja, for the relaunch of the radio station, advised the National Assembly to borrow a leaf from other advanced nations on how to deal with the excesses of the social media.
Maida, who is also the Publisher of People’s Daily Newspapers and member of the Executive Board of the International Press Institute (IPI), noted that locking offenders up proposing death for them can never be an option, saying “there’s no prison big enough to contain free speech”.
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The media guru, who was Chairman of the dinner event said “I think we are getting over concerned over these things, these are things all over the world and for anybody to come and say people be killed because this, I think, is going overboard.
“We know there are problems, but again there are ways you can also handle them. You can see what is happening in other countries, especially when there are strikes and so on, what they do is to block the social media. I’m told the thing has come down.
“My advice to government is that they should do what other countries are doing, like blocking social media access, besides there are other ways of containing the excesses, but not to the extent of taking people to prison or calling for death penalty”, he said.
Also Speaking to journalists after the event, the Chairman, Kings Broadcast Limited, owners of WE FM 106.3, Abuja, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, said the proposed punishments for the abuse of the social media had been taken too far, suggesting that mechanisms should be devised to check the excesses of the media platform.
“I think proposing death penalty for hate speech is taken too far, we all know and are unhappy with what we are seeing within the social media domains, but I think it’s for us to develop mechanisms to check that.
“You don’t throw away the baby with the bathwater. I think the law has to be reworked. Saying because the sin of a few, you want to now regulate an industry that has hitherto enjoyed so much freedom, I don’t think is correct”, he said.
Speaking about the prospects coming with the relaunched radio station, Idris who is also the Publisher of The Blueprint Newspaper, said “WE FM is rebranded, you should expect good programming, good content. It is reloaded, as you can see. We are trying to do it better, I believe Nigerians are enjoying what we are doing and we are going to get along very well. Nigerians should expect so much”.
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