The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said that the Federal Government, in its ongoing fight against hate speech and fake news. will not make any law or directive that will ‘disturb’ processes in media houses.

The Minister gave the assurance on Monday in Lagos when he paid a working visit to the Headquarters of Television Continental (TVC).

In summary: 

• The alleged directive from National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) regulating phone-in programmes and Newspaper review on TV and radio programmes is an example of fake news – a participant of the meeting with stakeholders, including NBC, media owners and others in Lagos leaked out the issues, which were never adopted.
• He said the position of the government has been and still remains that the industry should regulate itself.
• Media houses should discharge their responsibilities in accordance with the dictates of their guiding codes to check the alarming rate of hate speech and fake news.
• Media houses should regulate the calls received during phone-in programmes to checkmate opportunists from using such avenue for hate speech.
• The Anti-Terrorism Act 2011 defines hate speech amongst others, as an act deliberately done with malice and which may seriously harm or damage a country or seriously intimidate a population.

The Chief Executive Officer of TVC, Mr Andrew Hanlon thanked the Minister for the visit.

Omoleye Omoruyi

Omoleye Omoruyi… an apprentice web/game developer, novelist, sensitive to happenings in the world. Meet him @Lord_rickie on Twitter/Instagram