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Nigerian regulator bans live relay
of foreign news broadasts
Lagos, Nigeria, Apr. 5— The Nigerian authorities
have banned local radio and television stations from relaying live,
foreign news broadcasts.
This move has stopped the BBC from broadcasting news and programs on
FM in four Nigerian cities, depriving listeners across the country of
a popular source of national and international news.
The ban on live relay broadcasts was imposed by the government’s
radio and television regulator, the National Broadcasting Commission
(NBC), going into effect on Apr 1.
One Nigerian radio station hit particularly hard is Ray Power FM, which
had been relaying BBC programs live in Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, and Port
Harcourt. Its output included the popular news programs Network Africa
and Focus on Africa.
“We’ve had to stop live broadcast of these programs from Apr.
1 following a directive from NBC to that effect,” an official of
DAAR Communications, the owner of Ray Power, told IRIN in Lagos.
Silas Yisa, the head of the NBC, said in the directive -- a copy of
which was obtained by IRIN -- that the ban on live relays was necessary
because “Apart from the perspectives they convey, it is a professional
aberration for a station to relay any news content over which it has
no editorial control.”
Yisa said such broadcasts posed a danger to national security and he
warned that defaulting stations faced unspecified punishment.
Ray Power had been relaying BBC news broadcasts for more than six years.
But Yisa said that the station had been granted permission to do so
in breach of the provisions of the national broadcasting code.
He said existing regulations only permitted the monitoring and rewriting
of news broadcasts by foreign stations or the exchange of content after
it has been “edited to suit the context of the Nigerian audience.”
NBC has also banned the broadcast of religious television programs “that
profess indiscriminate miracles,” alleging that most of these amounted
to the exploitation of viewers for profit. The new rules have drawn
mixed reactions in Nigeria.
“This is certainly a breach of Nigeria’s constitutional and
international obligation to protect freedom to obtain information across
borders and without interference,” Jumoke Soares, a human rights
activist, told IRIN.
Philip Ehosa, who said he was a regular listener of the BBC broadcasts
on Ray Power, said he felt a huge sense of loss.
“I found the BBC broadcasts a useful source of information, not
only about the world but also about Nigeria,” he told IRIN. “I
think this government has something to hide that it doesn’t want
Nigerians to know,” he added.
But political analyst Uche Obidike insisted the government had taken
the right action.
Obidike, a member of the Civil Liberties Organization, who is frequently
quoted in the local media, argued that the NBC directive had not stopped
people from listening to foreign radio stations on short wave or having
access to satellite television or radio broadcasts.
“I think it’s only proper, because I doubt if there are any
local radio stations in Britain that provide live relays of news broadcast
by Nigerian stations,” Obidike said.
Nigeria has a lively independent local media, which is not afraid to
criticize the government.
However, the Nigerian move could serve as a justification for other
African countries, where there is less press freedom, to clamp down
on relays by foreign broadcasters.
In Cote d’Ivoire, for instance, there are no private television
stations and privately owned radio stations are banned from carrying
news. Many Ivorians therefore listen avidly to the local FM relays of
Radio France Internationale, the BBC, Voice of America, and Gabon-based
Africa Numero Un to find out what is going on in their own country.
These relays were shut down for a week without explanation on Mar. 25,
when Ivorian government forces killed dozens of people as they tried
to prevent a banned opposition demonstration. The foreign news broadcasts
were eventually allowed to resume at the end of last week.
Source: UNIRIN
Air America Radio is a joke
By Justin Felux
Apr. 4 — A while back I listened to a recording of a teach-in
at Colombia University in which Cornel West was giving a speech. At
the beginning he said, “I’d like to thank that group that
made Sept. 13 an upbeat day for me, even given the death of brother
Tupac Shakur.” He was referring to the group of prisoners who took
part in the Attica prison uprising on Sept. 13, 1971, the same day that
Tupac died in 1996. Some of the white liberals in the audience responded
by laughing, thinking that West was making a joke. They were so clueless
that they didn’t realize West was expressing genuine remorse over
Tupac’s death. I was reminded of that incident when I started learning
about this new “liberal radio network.” I thought that a lot
of black folks must be laughing right now, because although white liberals
don’t seem to realize it yet, Air America Radio is a joke.
The network is making its debut in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.
All three of these cities have a substantial black population. New York
has the highest black population of any city in the country. Chicago’s
black population is nearly as large as its white population. Generally
speaking, blacks are much more liberal than their white counterparts.
About 90 percent of blacks vote for the Democratic Party as opposed
to just over 40 percent of whites. Given these facts, one might expect
that African Americans would be prominently featured on this new “liberal
radio network.” Sadly, the folks at Air America Radio could only
find space for a grand total of two black people, by my count. Chuck
D, frontman for the great rap group Public Enemy, deserves better than
to be one of the token black guys for this doomed misadventure. The
other is Mark Riley, who co-hosts the show Morning Sedition. Both Chuck
D and Mark Riley have two white co-hosts.
It gets worse. In New York, Air America’s programming will be featured
on WLIB-1190 AM, which is owned by the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation
(ICBC). Prior to the partnership with Air America, WLIB had been serving
New York’s black community for decades. It was an outlet for black
activists and featured unique “Afrocentric” programming. The
CEO of the ICBC, Pierre Sutton, tells his listeners that the new move
“gives us an opportunity to impact on the world outside of our
own community.” Many in the black community disagree. According
to black activist Elombe Brath, “We have people here already who
know radio, who can do shows. And they want to come in with a program
from other people trying to talk to black people in New York City? [WLIB]
is just a station that has been stripped of what it’s supposed
to be! ... In reality what the station needs is to have some people
who know the community and can speak to its needs.”
In recent years WLIB has mostly featured Caribbean programming. Carl
Tyndale, a listener for more than 17 years, was upset with the takeover:
“Where are we going to find Caribbean music now? This station had
so much information. They would broadcast cricket games and news from
back home. Other stations don’t do that. I don’t think there
is going to be many black issues with the new format, and there will
be less Caribbean callers because people won’t feel at home. That
is where people tune in to get something from home.” Tracey-McCallum,
a listener originally from Jamaica, was equally upset by the changes.
“Their programming was quite good and offered quite a bit of Caribbean
news; so that one source now is no longer available to us, and I think
it’s a great disappointment,” she said. The station will still
feature Caribbean content, but it will be limited to the hours between
midnight and 5:00am.
Of course, most white liberals are too busy bubbling over with joy to
give a damn. “At last we have a voice!” Who cares if we further
marginalize African Americans in the process? Hey, it wouldn’t
be the first time we’ve done it. Russell Simmons recently attacked
the arrogant indifference of white liberals at a gathering of the “Society
of Ethical Culture.” The meeting featured many members of Hollywood’s
liberal elite. Most of the time was spent strategizing about how to
defeat Bush in the upcoming election. When given the opportunity to
speak, Simmons informed those in attendance that “The shit y’all
doing is corny! You have to at least include people. We are not included!”
The audience members responded by rolling their eyes and shaking their
heads. Laurie David, the organizer of the event, later said, “I
didn’t really understand what he was talking about. I was pretty
clueless at the beginning of his diatribe and clueless at the end of
it.” Obviously.
Also in attendance was comedian Al Franken, who sarcastically responded,
“He said we were ‘corny,’ which is a terrible insult.
That really hit me hard.” Franken now has his own show on Air America,
which he has mischievously titled The O’Franken Factor. Somehow
I doubt black people will be tuning in to hear Al Franken deliver cheesy
one-liners about Bill O’Reilly. A brief scan of the reviews of
Franken’s first show indicate that most found it disappointing
and boring. They should not have expected anything better from Franken,
who has been telling the same five jokes for the past two years or so.
The show featured a bland interview with war criminal Bob Kerrey about
the 9/11 commission followed by an interview with sellout filmmaker
Michael Moore. The show reached its climax when former vice president
Al Gore called in. Moore used the opportunity to grovel. He issued a
pathetic apology for backing Ralph Nader in the 2000 elections and promised
to “throw a big party” for Al Gore if Bush loses the next
election.
The O’Franken Factor is followed by The Randi Rhodes Show, which
featured a screaming match between Rhodes and Ralph Nader on its inglorious
debut. Rhodes informed Nader that she was “pissed” that he
“screwed up the last election.” Nader tried to maintain his
composure and engage in civil discourse, but Rhodes continued screaming
at him until he eventually gave up. Over the course of the screaming
match, Nader aptly nicknamed the network “Hot Air America Radio.”
Rhodes and Franken are both partisan hacks who spent the majority of
their time serving up a virtual Bill Clinton love festival. The resulting
analysis and content ended up being as hollow and partisan as Rush Limbaugh’s
show.
Sadly, it seems that nothing will be there to balance the utter whiteness
of the network’s format. Considering that the Democratic Party
would be a political nonentity without the support of black voters,
the fact that they are shut out and marginalized at every turn is beyond
insulting. Air America Radio is just another episode in a long history
of callous indifference and clueless misunderstanding the Democratic
Party and white liberals in general have shown toward the black community.
Source: Alternative Press Review
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