The growing assault on free speech in Nigeria took another dimension on Friday as Kaduna-based Liberty Radio FM was slammed with a hefty N2 million fine over a phone-in discussion programme. The station’s ‘crime’? It aired a live comment by a caller who objected to the planned visit of the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, to the state. The caller suggested that the governor of Kaduna State spend the N150 million it cost to host the Minister’s so-called “Good Governance Tour” on more meaningful things.
In addition to the fine, Liberty Radio FM was also asked to feature the Minister as a guest.
The popular station, it would be recalled, also recently interviewed the governor of Niger State, Governor Aliyu Babangida, who declared categorically on air that President Goodluck Jonathan did sign an agreement with governors of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2011 to spend only one term in office.
A source at the station told SaharaReporters that they have received up to 15 letters querying their broadcast from the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC), a body set up under military dictator Ibrahim Babangida to censor electronic broadcasts in the country.
The attention to the station culminated in the letter received on Friday announcing it has been slammed with the fine over the comment by the caller on a live Hausa programme – “InA Dalili.” The letter demanding payment of the fine was backdated to April 4, 2013.
Last week, the police in Abuja, at the instance of Mr. Jonathan, illegally detained four journalists of Leadership newspaper for a story about a “presidential directive” aimed at muzzling opposition in the country.
Despite his increasingly unproductive government, Mr. Jonathan wants to run for president again in 2011.
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