Multichoice Nigeria has been fined N10 million for violating the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Act by showing “pornographic” scenes to viewers during the recently concluded Big Brother Africa 2 programme.
The Chairman, House Committee for Information and National Orientation, Honourable David Melaye who confirmed this to THISDAY said although Multichoice officials had earlier apologised, the punishment for the violation of the Act was inevitable.
The Committee, he said, was unanimous that the South African terrestrial service provider violated the Nigerian Broadcasting Act and must be punished accordingly.
Honourable Melaye said officials of the NBC and the Ministry of Information appealed against the $5 million fine which the House had earlier insisted that Mulitichoice should pay, relying on the provision of the Act which states that the supervising body should determine the amount to be meted to violators.
Officials of Multichoice had on Thursday November 22 in the House of Representatives apologised and also confirmed the sack of MNET’s producer of the Big Brother Africa 2 Programme, Mr. Martins Ngubane, who produced the show on the day the Nigerian representative on the programme, Ofunneka Molokwu was harassed by one of the Housemates.
The superior officer who was supposed to screen that section, Mr. Stephen Waraner, according to MNET was also sanctioned for dereliction of duty.
The company explained that it took these decisions, following pressure from the House of Representatives that the Nigerian girl was not adequately protected and that viewers were treated with obscene pictures during the period.
The operations director of MNET Africa, Mr. Joseph Hunda who appeared at the House Committee Room 13 with eight other officials of the company including Ofunneka, apologised to Nigerians, stating that there were certain editorial guidelines spelt out for the producers of the programme which were not adhered to.
Hunda said, “those things were not supposed to come on anyway and we are sorry that it appeared and we will not allow it again.”
He explained to the committee: “We commissioned MNET to come out with something that will project the image of Africa. We agree that there were certain things that were not acceptable to a large part of Nigerians. We have since had discussions with NBC and agreed that we are going to continuously use parental control on all DSTV channels. Our customers should be able to control their homes.”
Honourable Melaye told the Multichoice officials that Nigerians were fed too much indecent clips during the period the programme was aired.
Melaye said: “We will not allow our image to be dragged on the floor. Ofunneka projected the image of Nigeria and we are proud of her. We had earlier banned clips, previews and full airing of the programme and we want you to apologise to Nigerians over what happened.”
Hunda explained to the lawmakers that Multichoice has been making serious efforts towards encouraging more local content in its programmes, confirming that six local stations, AIT, Channels, Silverbird, MITV, NTA and Minaj Broadcasting International are already collaborating with Multichoice to add more local content.
He also said a new Programme, “Moments with Mo” aired thrice daily and produced in Nigeria is now on the DSTV channels.
Melaye also urged the company to get listed on the Nigerian stock exchange so that Nigerians can buy into the company as they have done in New York and Johannesburg.
He also told Hundah that Nigerians would want his company to engage in more serious corporate governance programmes so that the subscribers could have a sense of belonging.