Enforcement

DIRECTORATE OF INVESTIGATION AND ENFORCEMENT

The National Broadcasting Commission is mandated by Section 2 subsection (1)(f) of the Act which established the Commission to amongst others, receive, consider and investigate complaints from individual and bodies corporate, regarding the contents of a broadcasting station and the conduct of a broadcasting station. To effectively carry out this obligation, the Commission created the Investigation and Enforcement Directorate.

The Investigation and Enforcement Directorate of the National Broadcasting Commission, is made up of a team of dedicated and knowledgeable staff led by its Director. This team receives, investigates, arbitrates and/or enforces the law as provided by the Act that established the Commission.

The Cardinal responsibility of broadcasting which is to inform, educate and entertain, shall not be at the expense of national interest, unity and cohesion of Nigeria’s diverse social, cultural, economic, political and religious configurations. Therefore, according to the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, no broadcast shall intentionally encourage or incite to crime, lead to public disorder, be repugnant to public feeling or contain an offensive reference to any person, alive or dead, or generally, be disrespectful to human dignity.

Consequently, to ensure that the public enjoys its rights to quality broadcasting, the Commission encourages members of the public to complain if they are offended by the content of a broadcast and/or the conduct of a broadcast station.

In addition, the Commission has its monitoring formation which comprises ten (10) zonal offices and twenty four State Offices across the country, to physically monitor off the air the daily station’s broadcast and to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Code, the NBC Act, terms of license and other regulation standards.

When breach of any of the regulation standards occur, the Commission has the powers to step in and take action for the benefit of the public. This can involve investigating and enforcing the law as enshrined in the NBC Act and/or the broadcast code or arbitrating in the case of disputes between licensees. The Directorate also enforces consumer protection law, protect and manage the radio spectrum with the cooperation of the Engineering Directorate, and ensure viewers and listeners are protected from offensive and harmful material and treated fairly.

The Commission shall after receiving and investigating into any complaint, where necessary arbitrate or impose sanctions for any non-compliance or non-adherence to the regulatory standards on content of broadcast materials; conduct of the broadcast station; terms, conditions and obligations of any broadcast licence; NBC Act, The Code of broadcast and any other regulation of the Commission.

In line with Section (II) (I) of the NBC Act, the Directorate of Investigation and Enforcement, investigates complaints and ensures compliance to the provisions of the Code:

The functions of DI&E, include but not limited to:

• Investigating Complaints;
• Arbitrating where necessary;
• Updating and Advising the Director-General on the outcome of investigation.
• Observing trends from monitoring reports, and
• Making recommendations and ensuring compliance with outcome of investigation.

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