The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NBC

  • Party faults NBC’s stoppage of jingles in Ondo

    ONDO State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has decried the interference of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) in suspending its mobilisation jingles.

    The party Chairman, Mr. Isaac Kekemeke, in a statement, noted that the jingles were not offensive, but mainly to mobilise party members and other interested persons to APC.

    “Our party wonders why the NBC, if it so efficient, has not stopped the Transformation Agenda of Nigeria’s (TAN) numerous campaign jingles for President Goodluck Jonathan on television stations.

    “We decry in strongest terms the unpretentious and despicable descent of government agencies into the arena of partisan politics,” the party said.

    APC urged the commission to lift the stoppage of the party’s mobilisation jingles.

    The party also appealed to the citizenry to reject the new contraption, “Labour/Peoples Democratic Party (LPDP), of Governor Olusegun Mimiko after an alleged“unfruitful adventure” with LP.

  • NBC: Nigeria ‘ll meet ITU’s June deadline

    NBC: Nigeria ‘ll meet ITU’s June deadline

    Nigeria’s broadcast sector regulator, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), has assured that the country will meet the next June next deadline set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for television stations in Africa to migrate from analogue broadcasting to digital terrestrial television (DTT), adding that the date remained sacrosanct.

    Mba spoke at a breakfast session jointly organised by Advertisers’ Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) and Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIRAN) in Lagos at the weekend.

    The country has less than ten months to meet the deadline. The NBC started pilot implementation of the project in strife-torn Jos, the capital of Plateau State.

    Its Director General, Emeka Mba said after the ITU deadline, there would be no more international support for analogue spectrum as any operator still operating on the platform would have been technically edged out.

    He said in pursuit of meeting the ITU deadline, the Federal Government had finalised and harmonised discussions over the transmission network parameters with all Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member states.

    According to him, specifications for the Basic Set Top Box and Digital Television Receivers had also been finalised with other countries in the sub-region to ensure a seamless transition.

    He said contrary to the era where there was no separation of functions in the broadcast industry, there will indeed be separation of responsibilities under the new dispensation.

    According to him, broadcasters would be responsible for content while a Signal Distributor or Carrier would be saddled with Transmission of the Signals to viewers.

    Aside the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), the NBC chief said the Federal Government would license two other Signal Carriers for optimum benefit for viewers across the country, adding that the Federal Government has begun the process of licensing the second Signal Distributor.

    Mba said the focus of the NBC was on ensuring more broadcasting services are created such that the gaps in the industry are effectively addressed.

    He said: “Our focus at the NBC is promoting more broadcasting services to fill current gaps in content and services such as themed channels, special interest channels, educational and children’s channels, regional channels as well as new HD services.”

    According to him, the regulatory body will encourage interoperability through the use of open standards as well as credible audience measurement and advertising.

    ITU Secretary-General, Dr Hamadoun Toure, said the June 2015 deadline was agreed upon by the 193 members of the organisation. This consist governments as well as 70 private sector members.

    Toure said: “We knew it was doable when we set the migration deadline in 2005. The benefits of the migration exercise to both consumers as well as broadcasters are also enormous.”

    He added that the migration exercise will lead to freeing up of about one-third of frequencies which can then be used for the provision of other services.

    He however stressed the need for collaboration among existing analogue broadcasters, advertisers, regulators, content producers and government as a necessary yardstick for the success of the ITU initiative.

    President, MIPAN, Mr. Tolu Ogunkoya, said digitisation of the industry would bring real transformation in the nation’s broadcast industry in terms of content development, quality service and job creation.

    According to him, the initiative would definitely signpost a new era for operators for open and keen competition. “For me, this is the start-off of the relationship. There is definitely going to be a transformation,” he said.

    His ADVAN counterpart, Mr. Kola Ayeni, said he was aware of the prevailing scarcity of spectrums in the country; assuring that digitisation would help to address the issue.

  • Coca Cola secures $22million to support women

    Coca Cola secures $22million to support women

    The Nigerian Bottling Company Plc (NBC) said it has secured $22 million low interest facility from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to support women owned businesses in Nigeria.

    This was disclosed by the NBC Managing Director, Mr Ben Langat at the occasion of the graduation of Lady Mechanics Initiative (LMI) in Benin City, the Edo state capital yesterday.

    He said this was part of commitment by the Coca-Cola Company to facilitate the economic empowerment of five million women globally in its value chain by 2020.

    Langat was represented at the occasion by the Regional Logistic Director of the company in the East and Central region, Mr. Ademola Richards.

    He said in Nigeria, opportunities were being expanded for women in the area of distribution and retailers’ networks and supporting them with business skills, training as well as access to affordable financing.

    Langat said in Nigeria alone, about 27, 000 retailers benefited from such training in 2012.

    He noted that it was in a bid to economically empower women that the company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the LMI in 2009.

    Continuing, he said: “Under this MoU, LMI would identify and recruit 100 young disadvantaged and deprived women who are not presently attending an approved educational institution or gainfully employed among others.”

    The LMI Managing Director, Mrs. Sandra Ekperuah-Aguebor in her address said it has been able to train over 700 girls since the company came into being in 2004.

    Nigeria’s First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan in her address reiterated her desire to continue to support the initiative.

    The First Lady who was represented at the occasion by the Director of Women, in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Mrs. Iyamian Ajufo, expressed her resolve to address the challenges peculiar to women.

    On his part, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo appealed for more support for the LMI.

    Oshiomhole who was represented by the State Commissioner for Transport, Mr. Orobosa Omo-Ojo, appealed for well-meaning Nigerians and corporate organisations to support the girls.

  • NBC: The need to be vigilant

    NBC: The need to be vigilant

    Nigerians tend to think certain things cannot happen in their country. Until two years ago, when suicide bombing was premiered in Abuja, precisely at the headquarters of the Nigeria Police, it was widely assumed that no Nigerian, given our fun-loving disposition, would consider killing himself in a bid to kill others. We are wiser now.

    We still need to be a lot more, as there are some other things, while not here yet, that may take root here. One of such is pornography- delivered to us at home via pay-television. For now, it seems far-fetched. Soon, it may creep in on us. Why do i think so? Well, I recently returned from South Africa, where the decision of the country’s broadcasting regulator,  the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), to licence pornographic channels is causing massive public resentment.

    On Digital Media (ODM) is on StarSat’s pay-television platform (backed by the Chinese-owned StarTimes) in South Africa.

    Last November, ODM started broadcasting two pornographic TV channels – Private Spice and Playboy TV – in a separate StarSat sex TV package. This was shortly after being granted a licence by the South African broadcasting regulator. It is widely believed in South Africa that pornography was added to the viewing menu in a desperate bid to shore up flagging subscriber figures. Subscriber figures for the four-year old South African pay-TV operator, currently in business rescue, have dipped to between 100 000 and 120 000 from 150 000 a few years ago.

    The newest face of the opposition to

    the porn broadcast is the group, Doctors for Life, which represents 1, 400 doctors. The non-governmental body has filed an application at the High Court in Pretoria, the country’s capital, seeking a revocation of the broadcast licence. Its application has since been joined to the applications of the Justice Alliance of South Africa (JASA) and the Cause for Justice organisations, which submitted separate applications in the Western Cape High Court.

    JASA and Cause for Justice contend that South Africa’s broadcasting regulator,  which initially rejected ODM’s porn channels application before approving it a year later, acted illegally in its failure to consider that the constitutional rights of children outweigh the rights of StarSat’s freedom of expression.

    In its application, Doctors for Life, contends among other things, that pornography is addictive and has the potential to be harmful to the human brain in ways similar to those of substances like heroin, cocaine and LSD. Doctors for Life appear to have based its position on a recent study by German psychiatrists, which suggest that watching pornography may result in reduction in the activity of certain areas of the brain.

    The study discovered that men who watch a lot of pornography tend to have less gray matter volume as well as less activity in the region of the brain linked to rewards.

    The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, which analysed a relatively small sample, but offers the first evidence that could lead to the establishment of a link between exposure to pornography and brain size.

    Authors of the study questioned 64 healthy men aged 21 to 45 about their porn watching habits. They also examined how their brains reacted to pornographic images and took images of their brains in order to measure volume.

    The results show that the brain region activated when people view sexual stimuli is less active in men who watch a lot of pornography. It also shows the part of the brain associated with processing rewards is smaller in men who view pornography more often.

    JASA’s application requests the court to review the broadcasting regulator’s decision in granting a licence for porn television channels to StarSat, formerly the TopTV brand, and for ICASA to ensure a correct application of the law and broadcasting regulations.

    The current wave of anger is a continuation of what began last year, when ODM (operating as TopTV) was licensed to broadcast three adult content channels—Playboy TV, Desire TV, and Private Spice in South Africa. Late last year, ODM’s shareholders voted to accept the business rescue plan offered by StarTimes, following a slump in fortunes.

    The rescue plan was, however, immediately hit by a gust of public disapproval, chiefly from South African religious organisations, which argued that the pornographic channels could expose youngsters to explicit materials and could breed a society of perverts and increase sexually related crimes.

    South Africa’s Muslim Judicial Council, MJC, which described ICASA’s decision to grant licence for pornographic broadcast as as “inconsistent”. Nabeweya Mallick, spokesperson for the MJC, said the council was “disappointed,” at ICASA’s insensitivity to the rights of tastes of religious and race groups and cultures.

    ”We feel they have really failed the standards set by ICASA. If one is sensitive to the rights of these groups… what about the rights of women?” she questioned.

    South Africa’s Family Policy Institute, FPI, also railed against the channels and supported calls for a boycott. Its spokesperson, Errol Naidoo, said the channels stand to increase the rate of gender abuse in a country that already has one of the highest rates of sexual violence against women and children.

    ICASA argued that there is no law of general application prohibiting the production and distribution of adult content in South Africa. “Only the production and distribution of child pornography is expressly prohibited by the law,” it argued.

    Offering largely unfettered access to pornography in a country with a high incidence of gender abuse is sure to be an invitation to chaos.

    Is there a chance that Nigeria may one day have to face this kind of problem? I guess most Nigerians would answer in the negative-as we did before bombings and kidnapping got woven into our social fabric.

    Rape of minors has already become a problem here. So is that of adults, including women in their 70s. StarTimes operate here. While the Chinese company has not suggested it may serve us pornography (in fact, it categorically told a newspaper last year that it has no such plans), we need to keep an eye on it and other pay-TV operators so that they don’t damage the minds of our children. The National Broadcasting Commission needs to follow what happens in other lands and ensure nothing is sneaked in.

    Kwabeh, a statistician, lives in Abuja

  • Ex-tennis stars sue NBC over unauthorised advert

    Two retired professional table tennis players, Mrs. Modupe Amoo and Mrs. Omowunmi Muse have sued the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Plc at the Lagos State High Court for allegedly using their photograph in a brand advertisement without their consent.

    They are claiming N25million as exemplary/punitive damages for unlawful use of their picture and 21 per cent interest on the sum from the date of judgment.

    The claimants sought a declaration that the use of their picture and goodwill without their prior knowledge is unlawful and amounts to invasion of their privacy “through misappropriation of their images/likeness.”

    They sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from further publication of the pictures without their consent, and demanded N650, 000 as costs incurred in the suit.

    The claimants, through their lawyer Mr. Kennedy Atuenyi of J.D. Oloyede’s Law Chambers, joined an advertisement agency, STB-McCann, as the second defendant.

    Amoo and Muse had represented Nigeria in the 1972 Commonwealth and World Table Tennis tournaments held in Wales and Sarajevo-Yugoslavia, and jointly won three gold medals and a silver medal in the 1973 All Africa Games held in Lagos.

    The picture displaying their medals was published on November 1, 2011 to celebrate NBC’s “60 years of refreshing Nigeria.”

    According to them, when they contacted NBC for settlement, they were offered vouchers worth N200, 000 each to be used at a particular shopping complex, and were asked to sign documents regularising the use of their photographs in the advert.

    Their lawyer subsequently wrote to NBC twice, demanding a public apology, removal of the adverts including those pasted on delivery trucks, and N25million each to the claimants as compensation.

    “Till date, the first defendant (NBC) has failed/refused to accede/respond to any of our demands, as well as communicate/discuss with our solicitors,” the claimants said.

    However, NBC urged the court to dismiss the suit with substantial cost for being frivolous, vexatious and totally lacking in merit.

     

  • APCON, NBC to rejig trado-medical marketing communications

    APCON, NBC to rejig trado-medical marketing communications

    The Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria(APCON) and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) are to restructure trado-medical marketing communications to sanitise their advert space from unwholesome messages in their campaigns.

    APCON made this known during a stakeholders’ forum with trado-medical practitioners.

    Its Chairman, Mr. Lolu Akinwunmi, said the council had been making efforts to address violations of adverts code by trado-medical practitioners.

    With realisation by the government that the two regulating agencies need to do their job well, Akinwunmi said the bodies should be involved in the trado-medics since it launched the new APCON code.

    “The government does not want to stop or completely control the practitioners in terms of advertising, but it is part of the government’s responsibility that the communication being dished out is true, honest and credible,” he affirmed.

    Akinwunmi urged the practitioners to partner with APCON. “We are going to organise seminars so that people who are spoilers of the credibility of the genuine practitioners are not allowed to operate. So we need your support,” he said.

    The Minister of Health, represented by the Director of Traditional Medicine in the ministry, Mr. Moshood Lawal, maintained that new move is in the interest of all, especially the practitioners.

    Also, the Minister of Information, represented by the Director-General, NBC, Mr. Emeka Mba, said there are guidelines for broadcast of trado-medical programmes and maintained that nobody could stop the practitioners from advertising.

     

  • NBC to sanction stations over access to air

    The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) yesterday threatened to sanction radio stations, which denied opposition parties access to using their media houses.

    The Director-General of the commission, Mr. Emeka Mba, made the threat when he featured on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum.

    He said: “It is a problem that has become a very serious issue and we are committed to making an example out of one or two radio stations.

    “If you deny a group, especially during this election period, we will also deny you being on air. This is something that we’ve communicated to the radio stations, especially in the states.

    “I was telling someone that I have seen a former governor, who came to the commission to complain that the current state executive was not allowing him access to radio and I showed him a report that when he was governor, he also did not allow the other people.

    “In the practice of democracy, we need to learn; we need to adhere to civilised way of doing business.

    “But to be honest, we are working towards making example out of one or two radio stations.”

    Mba said the broadcast industry had been democratised with the injection of modern technology, which created better content management opportunities.

     

    According to him, there is the need for the industry to brace up to the challenges of the times by creating relevant programmes that could appeal to the children.

    He said the commission was collaborating with tertiary institutions toward ensuring that their products fit into the modern broadcast industry.

    “We have licensed many institutions to have radio and television stations and we regulate them; we need to make sure that the quality of people, who come out for these institutions, fit into the system,” Mba said.

    He also said proper and relevant broadcasting could shape the minds of the people, especially in the face of security challenges facing the nation.

    Mba also expressed NBC’s readiness to establish community radio across the country.

    He said such development would keep Nigerians better informed, adding that information was an essential ingredient to meaningful living.

  • APCON, NBC to hold forum March 20

    THE Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) are organising a stakeholders forum to review the communications and packaging of traditional medical products and services on March 20 at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Iganmu, Lagos.

    Its theme is: Regulating trado-medical packaging and communication for a healthy society.

    The Chairman of the Planning Committee, Mrs. Bunmi Cole noted that the forum would afford stakeholders an opportunity to review the packaging and communicating of trado-medical products and services by practitioners in this sector.

    “All registered and yet to register traditional medicine practitioners and marketers, pharmaceutical companies, educational institutions, medical bodies, Ministry of Health, relevant research institutions, advertising agencies and media were required to attend.”

     

  • NBC donates tricycles to group

    The Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Limited has restated its commitment to protecting the environment by supporting Wecyclers Nigeria Limited, a group that seeks to solve the urban waste challenge by using a fleet of low-cost cargo bicycles to offer convenient household collection of wastes.

    To expand its collection capacity, the company has donated eight tricycles, known as Wecycles, to the group.

    Speaking at the handover, which took place at the Lagos State Waste Management Agency (LAWMA) yard in Ebute-Metta, Head, Public Affairs and Communication, NBC, Mrs. Adeyanju Olomola, said the company was delighted to support Wecycler’s drive on waste collection in Lagos State.

    Olomola added that NBC’s sponsorship and participation in recycling is borne out of an active commitment of the company to packaging waste recovery and recycling, one of its seven sustainability pillars, noting that the deal with Wecyclers, represents a community-led initiative.

    She  emphasised that NBC was not only concerned with refreshing consumers with a wide range of products, but is also interested in working in partnerships to minimise the impact of packaging on the environment.

     

  • SERAP drags Coca-Cola, NBC to UN over harmful drinks, abuse of right to health

    Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has dragged Coca-Cola Limited and the Nigerian Bottling Company Limited to the United Nations’ (UN) Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights over what it described as “serious breaches of corporate responsibility to respect the right to health of Nigerians and the failure to provide effective remedies to victims.”

    The organisation said: “This failure of due diligence has implications for the enjoyment of the economic and social rights guaranteed under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.”

    The group petitioned the UN following the disclosure by the Nigerian Consumer Protection Council (NCPC) of cases of harmful drinks including two half-empty cans of Sprite, a product manufactured by the NBC under the licence and authority of Coca-Cola Limited, and rusty bottle crown corks, cans and foreign particles in products.

    The NCPC also said  the companies have failed to put in place a shelf life policy for their products to facilitate the removal of expired products from the market.

    According to SERAP, “both Coca-Cola and NBC have failed and or neglected to subject their manufacturing process to inspection by appropriate authorities, contrary to national laws and international standards, in particular, the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework. The principles were endorsed by the UN Human Rights’ Council in June 2011.”

    The organisation also argued that: “Coca-Cola and NBC are required to ensure that their activities do not directly or indirectly cause human rights abuses, and to provide effective remedies to victims in cases of abuses of human rights. They must seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts.”

    “The human rights abuses by Coca-Cola and NBC illustrate the lack of explicit human rights policies by several companies operating in Nigeria and which have continued to contribute to the violations and abuses of the economic and social rights of millions of Nigerians. Even companies with human rights policies have failed and or neglected to effectively implement these policies for the sake of profit,” the organisation added.

    SERAP said: “We believe that human rights abuses by Coca-Cola and NBC cannot be justified in the light of the letter and spirit of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the UN Guiding Principles as well as the Committee’s own jurisprudence.”

    It, therefore, requested the committee, “being the principal body established to monitor compliance with the Covenant”, to act urgently not only to ensure that corporate bodies like Coca-Cola and NBC are not directly or indirectly abusing the economic and social rights of Nigerians under the Covenant and the Guiding Principles, but also protect the sanctity, credibility, efficacy and authority of the Covenant and the Guiding Principles and the Committee’s role in ensuring that corporate practices do not directly or indirectly lead to abuses of human rights.”

    “The Committee should work with the Working Group on the issues of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises to put pressure on Coca-Cola and NBC to respect their social responsibility to promote human rights and afford remedies to the victims involved in this case,” SERAP said.

    The communication Manager, Coca Cola/Nigerian Bottling Company, Mrs. Oluyomi Onakoya declined comment on SERAP’s petition to the UN.

    “As you will appreciate, this matter is currently under judicial review. As such, it would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time. We have been operating in Nigeria since 1951 and at all times have conducted our business in compliance with the country’s laws and regulatory requirements concerning our industry.

    “Throughout the past 63 years we have applied processes and procedures to institute high quality standards in production and achieve international values for all aspects of operations including those involving human rights, community support and environmental protection.

    “Our commitments and our application of our Mission and Values and the monitoring of our progress in these regards, can be found on our website,” she said.