National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has been urged to review its ban on religious broadcasts containing unsubstantiated miracles and relay of foreign news broadcast by some Nigerian electronic media.
Making the appeal yesterday, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Lagos State council urged the NBC to first make public the offences already committed by local broadcasting stations to merit the ban.
To pass the curcial test of transparency and objectivity in service, the NUJ said NBC owes the public explanation, as the failure of the commission to make public the deficiencies of local stations has justified the position held on this matter by the northern elite, who alleged that the comission is out to serve political interests of some people.
The NUJ said emphasis have been made that every local broadcast station must have editorial control over its news content and analysis, either foreign or local.
On the issue of religious broadcast the union noted that for Christians, miracles and healing are part of faith. "In other words, miracles are things of the mind. Nobody can verify such miracles to those who believe in them Anybody who does not believe in such claims of divine healing can tune his or her station to another station when such programmes are aired. NBC agrees that most of the stations get their lifeline from these religious programmes. This is to say the least is an attempt to make things difficult for these stations.