Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says the Federal Government will sanction Trust TV, a television owned by Media Trust Group, and the BBC over their documentaries on bandits’ activities in the North.
Trust TV and BBC Africa Eye had in separate documentaries exposed the activities of the criminal gangs making life difficult for Nigerians.
But Mohammed, in an interview with newsmen on Thursday said the documentaries promoted terrorism in the country.
He disclosed that the appropriate regulatory body had begun a probe of the infractions with the objective of meting out appropriate sanctions to the two media organisations.
Mohammed said, “There is a regulatory body regulating broadcasting which is the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and they are also aware of these two incidents.
“They are looking at which part of the Broadcasting Code that has been violated by the BBC and Trust TV. Media is the oxygen that terrorists and bandits use to breathe.
“When otherwise reputable platforms like BBC can give their platform to terrorists showing their faces as if they are Nollywood stars, it is unfortunate.
“I want to assure them that they will not get away with it, appropriate sanctions will be meted to both the BBC and the Trust TV.”
He added that the fact that though BBC is a foreign medium and not under NBC regulations, sanctions will be meted to the medium.
He said, “Let me assure you that they will not get away with the naked glorification of terrorism and banditry in Nigeria. If they are not registered in Nigeria and they are only sending their signals to Nigeria, we will ask them to stop sending the signals.
“I know that during the IRA days, the BBC will not dare do what they are doing now in Nigeria. It is because there is a country called Nigeria that they are operating here.”