CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In this part of the world,media ownership first began with the activities of colonial missionaries.with the establishment of “lwe lrohin”,Henry Townsend had a platform with which he could communicate with the community.Thus began the advent of newspaper in Nigeria,in 1859.
The other set of people to have engaged in mass media were the Nationalists namely:Herbert Macauley,Nnamdi Azikiwe,and Obafemi Awolowo,to mention but a few. In this colonial era,newspapers like the African pilot were established to advocate for self-rule in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. While the Nationalists engaged in massive mobilisation and orientation through these early media,the colonialists made use of the media to propagate their policies,to galvanise support for the second world war,and to engage in massive propaganda,depicting their race as superior to the black race. then in 1959,the then premier of western Nigeria, Obafemi Awolowo established the western Nigeria Television (WNTV). Thus began the interest of the Nigerian Government in mass media. Soon enough,immediately after independence,state-owned television and radio stations began to spring up in every part of the country.
Consequently,in 1992,the Babangida regime effected the deregulation and democratisation of the broadcasting sector in Nigeria,along side the annulment of the 12 june 1993 presidential election. The deregulation of the broadcast media brought to an end government’s monopoly of the broadcast media and the emergence of independent broadcasting stations. The annulment led to greater political awareness and the presence of a commited courageous press.
The history of the media in Nigeria has always been characterised by two major forms of ownership, thoes owned by the government and thoes owned by private individuals. In the case of government ownership,the media are completely financed and supervised by the government like:Nigeria Television Authortity(NTA),Federal Radio Coporation of Nigeria(FRCN),Voice of Nigeria(VON),the various states owned radio and television;while the private owned media are financed and controlled by private individuals like:Ray power Fm,Africa Independent Television(AIT),Galaxy Television,Channels Television,etc. These forms of media ownership are all driven by separate agenda. The government media houses are used mainly as instruments of propaganda for the government,while the private media owners are driven by different motives,which could be profit making,agenda setting,to win influence which can be later translated into political and business gains,etc. (Uche Nworah,Freelance Writer)
Undoubtely,and as it has been frequently suggested,stations owned by the government are bound to be pro-government. The saying,”He who pays the piper,dictates the tune”greatly applies here. You cannot possibly bite the hand that feeds you. Nigeria Television Authority (NTA),Federal Radio Coporation of Nigeria(FRCN),Voice of Nigeria(VON),and other government owned stations cannot air anything that antagonises or do not support thegovernment policies and actions. In fact,such stations are frequently used as tools for propaganda. They never see anything bad in the government. Most often,they become the mouthpiece of the state-instruments of publicity. A lot of people now prefer to watch and listen to news from AIT,Channels,Ray Power Fm,Solid Fm,etc.than from NTA or FRCN,because they believe that NTA or FRCN does not portray truth in their news item,especially when such news items concern the government.
Apart from the effects given above,there is one that is very common today. Although,state-owned (public) media organisations have their flaws,they have their good sides. Government-owned media houses are not profit oriented and therefore,do not pay overt attention to such programmes that will generate income. Private media organisations,on the other hand,are established for profit-making. As is evident today,most private stations give more time to programmes that are seen as gold mines. Reality Tv Shows ,musicals,and paid programmes carry the day.(Imhoagene Richard,a freelance writer).
Objectivity is a significant principle of journalistic prrofessionalism. Journalistic objectivity is fairness, disinterestedness,factuality,and non-partisanship. The BBC,even though is a British government-owned media outfit would never give undue advantage to the British government against the British citizens. In a sharp contrast,however,with the FRCN the story is diametrically different. The government and government alone comes first. For instance,the BBC covered in all its ramifications,the protest on the streets of london and other parts of tha country. People,in fact,relied more on the BBC than Sky news,a privately-owned media organisations for authentic news of events in that country. In Nigeria,however,an average educated Nigerian in Nigeria or anywhere in the world would rather tune a foreign channel for an unbiased news of events about Nigeria than tune to FRCN.
We believe that FRCN according to its motto can only,”uplift and unite” Nigeria by telling the nation the truth and not half truth,innuendoes and outright lies. We believe it will not harm the funding of FRCN if they tell Nigerians the truth. What a fortunate incident that president Goodluck Jonathan signed into law the Freedom of Information Bill,which serves as an advantage to FRCN to extricate themselves from the “non-existent strangehold” of the government at this critical period of our nation’s life.