The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project and the Nigerian Guild of Editors have jointly filed a lawsuit against the National Broadcasting Commission at the Federal High Court in Lagos, challenging what they described as an arbitrary, unconstitutional, and unlawful directive threatening to sanction broadcast stations and presenters for exercising core journalistic functions protected by the Nigerian Constitution.
The suit, marked FHC/L/CS/854/2026 and filed on April 24, 2026, challenges the NBC’s recent formal notice warning broadcasters against expressing personal opinions as facts, bullying or intimidating guests, and failing to maintain neutrality, directions the plaintiffs argued were vague, overly broad, and fundamentally incompatible with the constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression and media freedom.
In their originating processes, SERAP and the Guild argued that the provisions of the sixth edition of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code relied upon by the commission constituted a fundamental breach of constitutional rights, and warned that unless the court intervened, the NBC would continue using the Broadcasting Code as a weapon to threaten and sanction broadcast stations and presenters solely for carrying out their constitutionally protected responsibilities.
The plaintiffs contended that journalistic work inherently included opinion, commentary, and analysis, describing these as lying at the very core of journalistic practice and democratic discourse. They argued that the Nigerian Constitution as the supreme law rendered any subsidiary legislation inconsistent with it null and void, and that the Broadcasting Code as subsidiary legislation could not override constitutional rights or exceed the scope of its enabling statute.
On the broader democratic implications, the plaintiffs warned that the NBC’s approach risked suppressing the diversity of information and viewpoints that citizens needed to make informed decisions, particularly ahead of the 2027 general elections. They said the threat of sanctions created a chilling effect on journalists and broadcasters that would likely drive self-censorship and weaken the media’s constitutionally recognised watchdog role at a critical moment in Nigeria’s democratic cycle.
Senior Advocate Femi Falana is leading the legal team representing SERAP and the Guild. The plaintiffs are seeking declarations that multiple provisions of the Broadcasting Code were unconstitutional and an injunction restraining the NBC from enforcing sanctions based on those provisions. No date had been fixed for the hearing of the interim application or the substantive suit at the time of filing.
