Nigeria: With internet, the regulator has lost relevance

Abuja — Chairman/Editor-in-Chief of THISDAY Newspaper, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, has questioned the relevance of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) as a regulator in an age where technology has created a borderless world.

Obaigbena was delivering a lecture to participants at the Executive Intelligence Management Course at the Institute for Security Studies in Abuja yesterday.

He called for the merging of the NBC with the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) because, according to him, the NBC has lost its relevance because of nature of modern news media.

The duty of NBC is to regulate and license broadcasting stations but with advent of the Internet, voice and video can be transmitted from anywhere in the world, thereby rendering NBC irrelevant.

A merger with the NCC, he advised, would be more appropriate for management, including frequency and spectrum allocations.

"Technology has changed the media. I wonder what the role of the NBC is anymore since all videos and voice can be delivered online. Then what are they regulating or licensing? NBC's time is gone. What we need is merging it with the NCC so that together they can properly manage frequencies," he said.

"Because the Internet is not fully developed, it is a palce for the good, the bad and even the ugly. Citizen journalism flourishes and all sorts of character and character assassination occur online and little can be done about it. If you shut down a website today, hundreds spring up the next week. So how would NBC handle this new media?" he added.

Even though all sorts of information are disseminated through various websites, those which are credible and are strongest will be branded and remain reliable sources, he said.

-November 4, 2009 by Damilola Oyedele

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Source:allafrica.com/stories/200911030005.html (accessed 4.11.2009)