How the NTA is covering the 2011 political campaigns

The Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, which has dubbed itself the largest TV network in Africa, is playing a central role in this period as the state owned broadcast organisation. It is, after all, a public corporation. Within the media circle, there are already questions if the NTA has the capacity to report the electioneering process […]

The Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, which has dubbed itself the largest TV network in Africa, is playing a central role in this period as the state owned broadcast organisation. It is, after all, a public corporation.

Within the media circle, there are already questions if the NTA has the capacity to report the electioneering process fairly. Dr. Emman Shehu of the International Institute of Journalism, Abuja, in a previous interview, expressed serious doubts over the stations capacity to report fairly on the campaigns.

Already, it would seem, the ruling party, the Poeples Democratic Party (PDP) is enjoying a large chunk of airtime on the stations news reports. Even before campaigns began, it would seem loyalist of the president, Goodluck Jonathan, enjoyed a lot of patronage as they urged him to contest the impending elections. Various support groups found themselves making headline news for imploring Mr. Jonathan to contest the elections.

Monitoring the NTA Network news this week, when campaigns have been flagged off by all the major contenders for the presidency, there are reasons to believe the NTA is devoting more airtime to the ruling PDP as compared to others.

Starting from Tuesday, March 1, for instance, the lead news was on PDP presidentially rally in Lagos. It went on for five minutes. Two minutes was devoted to President Jonathan’s visit to the Oba of Lagos. This news item was followed by a report of the PDP women rally in Cross Rivers State which took a minute. Then a report on “Nigerian Mandate Supports Jonathan,” which also took a minute, followed. After about nine or 10 minutes, the opposition got a mention with a minute long report on the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) presidential rally in Lagos. After the commercial break, a two minute report on preparations for the PDP presidential rally in Ondo State followed.

The same pattern played out on Wednesday March 2nd. The news opened with a four minutes report on President Jonathan’s rally in Ado Ekiti, followed by a two-minute report on the president’s rally in Akure, and another three-minute report on his visit to traditional rulers. This was followed by a three-minute update on PDP presidential rallies, a one minute report on the Congress for Progressive Change Presidential rally in Kaduna and a three-minute report on PDP women rally in the South East and another three-minute report on the first lady’s visits to traditional rulers.

On Thursday, March 3rd, the news again opened with a five-minute report on President Jonathan’s campaign rally in Osogbo and a four-minute report on his visits to traditional rulers. Then there was a minute report on the CPC North Central rally in Minna. The news of the bomb explosion in Suleja, which claimed 10 lives, then followed.

What emerged from these observations is that the first nine or 10 minutes are dedicated to the president’s campaign and related matters and then the opposition are given a minute-wide window to make their presence known.

But the NTA does not feel this, in anyway, favours the president over the opposition.

“You see, everywhere the president goes and makes a statement, there is usually a policy statement that is of interest to Nigerians, that is why he usually comes first,” Malam Garba Mamu, NTA Executive Director News, said.

He said the station is dedicated to openness and fair coverage of events, adding that they are in the process of inaugurating a team of senior executives from the station, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to deal with any complaint from any party that feels it has not been properly reported by the station. The committee will come on stream on Tuesday, Garba Mamu says.

The director admits that the station is overwhelmed by the challenge of covering the campaigns but is putting in place measures to ensure that Nigerians are properly informed on the politicking going on in the country.

“I called an official of the CPC and told them why there is no sound bite accompanying their report yesterday,” he said, referring to the report of the party’s rally in Minna. The party’s presidential candidate spoke in Hausa, and this, Malam Mamu says, was a factor against using the sound bite from the report. He also assures that all live coverage of political rallies are paid for and where two events or more are occurring at the same time, one event is delayed, and this is done with the consent of the parties, he says.

Because the NTA is financed by the government, it is feared that the station comes under undue influence from government officials either overtly or covertly. Malam Mamu insists the NTA enjoys unlimited freedom to operate.

“Since I came here, no body from government has come here to tell me, take this story, don’t take this story. There is no interference,” he says.

But when the antecedent of the station is considered, the NTA has always been singing the praise of any government in power. However, there is no denying that even under dictatorships, Nigerian media have enjoyed greater freedom compared to other African countries like Malawi and the old Zaire, however, there is a fear that the NTA and other state owned media have conditioned themselves to self-censorship.

It is difficult for instance to imagine the NTA doing what the British Broadcasting Corporation usually does. The BBC is known globally for its independence despite being funded by the British government.

In an interview with Sunday Trust last June, Joseph Warungu, the editor of the BBC’s Focus on Africa and Network Africa explained how the BBC retains its independence from the government and can even afford to present reports critical of the government.

“It’s because of the way the BBC is set up. It is true, BBC World Service gets funding from parliament, we are funded by the treasury every year to run our operations but the government never ever interferes with what we do. So I don’t need to consult anybody like the Foreign Office to say, look, we’ve got this story… even if it’s a British person that got into trouble, or there was something bad about Britain, we would report it as normal because we enjoy that level of freedom. I think the government is very weary of trying to interfere because if it did, the public would rise up in arms,” he said.

Despite Malam Mamu’s insistence that the NTA enjoys that much freedom, the results, in terms of news reportage, clearly indicate a tilt and a lot needs to be done to obtain some kind of balance.

In various states across the country, the state government owned broadcast stations unabashedly tilt towards the government and shut out the opposition, who then find a voice on the local channel of the NTA or any other private station within the state.

A glaring case is what happened in Iseyin, Oyo State last weekend, where members of the governor’s entourage started shooting in the air when they passed by an opposition party rally, killing one person in the process. The state owned Broadcasting Cooperation of Oyo State, BCOS, shoddily reported that some miscreants attacked the governor’s convoy.

The NBC, the regulatory body for all broadcast organisations in the country, has a code guiding elections coverage. But despite the imbalance in reporting by public owned broadcast stations, no station has so far been penalized for breaching the code. The NBC could not be reached for comments as its spokesman said he had travelled. On the date of his retune, he could not be reached on phone.

But it is quite clear that the commission needs to sit up to ensure credible reportage of the April polls.