Drop bill seeking to amend Nigerian Press Council Act, NPO tells Reps

THE Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO) has asked the House of Representatives to drop a bill seeking to amend the Nigerian Press Council Act.

The group made its position known during a public hearing on the bill yesterday organised by the House Committee on Information, Culture, Ethics and Values.

NPO is the umbrella organisation for the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ).

Recall that Minister of information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Wednesday, requested that internet broadcasting platforms should be included in the National Broadcasting Commission Act.

But the Editor-in-Chief of the Leadership newspaper, Azubike Ishiekwene, who represented the organisation at the hearing, asked the lawmakers to drop the proposed bill because of an ongoing court case.

He said 17 out of the 39 clauses in the bill are parts of litigation since 1999.

Ishiekwene recounted that the 8th Senate also dropped the bill due to the pending litigation.

However, in his response, the chairman of the committee, Olusegun Olatubosun (APC, Oyo), said the court process would not stop the committee from discharging its constitutional function of making laws.

The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Press Council, Francis Nwosu, said past ministers of information and past leaders of the Nationnottssembly have tried to resolve the dispute over the bill.

Nwosu also called for online media to be included in the bill for regulation.

A former member of the House, Sanni Zorro, in his submission, urged the chairman of the committee to set up a tripartite committee to meet to resolve the issues raised by the journalists.