Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, has said that accommodating hate speech and inflammatory comments on FM stations in the state was a recipe for disaster at the time Kano was in dire need of lasting peace.
Speaking at a meeting with Chief Executives of respective FM Radio stations in Kano at his palace yesterday, Sanusi said the attitude of giving access to “political jobbers to engage in negative and destructive spin can ignite tension and cause chaos in a volatile city like Kano.”
He added that as respective heads of their stations they had an abiding obligation to nip the trend in the bud.
He said there were rules and regulations guiding the practice of journalism which the practitioners of the pen must strive to uphold, stressing that it was the sole responsibility of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to monitor the activities and operations of Radio Stations everywhere in the country for the excesses of masters of negative spin to be checked.
Citing the example of the recent murder of a 70-year-old Igbo woman by an angry mob for allegedly blaspheming the holy Prophet of Islam to buttress his point, the monarch said the issue was blown out of proportion “and highly politicised by those who hide under the right to freedom of expression to settle their scores.”
Speaking on behalf of the Radio stations Chiefs, the Managing Director, Radio Kano, Hajiya Saadatu Babaji, assured the monarch that radio stations in the state would strive to maintain a high standard of professionalism, stressing that as gate-keepers of their respective organisations they all had a vital role to play.
Also speaking, the General Manager, Pyramid Radio FM, Alhaji Garba Ubale Dambatta, stressed the need for the monarch’s intervention in case they derailed, pointing out that with the influence of the emir as a father he was at liberty to call everyone to order.
