As a Federal Government-owned media organisation,the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) does not operate like privately owned outfits as its contents are expected to promote the activities of government. It also has other challenges that almost continuously pitch it against the private media. Daily Trust on Sunday analyses such challenges and the steps the current leadership of the Corporation has taken to solve them.
The Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, with Radio Nigeria as its flagship, is in the same family with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) and Voice of Nigeria (VON). They are all owned and managed by the Federal Government.
Speaking on the activities of the FRCN, a public relations professional and writer, Yushau A. Shuaib, said as a government-owned media outfit, most of its contents promote activities of the Federal Government, mostly the Presidency and the National Assembly. This is in contrast to what obtains in private media organisations, which give more attention to issues concerning the ordinary people and opposition leaders.
“You can’t compare their sense of objectivity and fairness with privately owned radio or television houses when it comes to what news the likes of the FRCN carry and how they slant the news. Their principals (officials of the Federal Government) have interests that the radio house would feel should be protected. If the government may feel uncomfortable with a news item, it can’t get airtime,” he said.
Also speaking on the activities of the FRCN, the national secretary of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Shuaibu Usman Leman said, “I haven’t noticed direct interference from the Federal Government, but in certain instances, you see cases of self-censorship on the part of some of the media professionals. Sometimes reporters go out feeling that there are certain stories that may not be too palatable to the government. That is why you rarely get news critical of government from these media houses.”
He said the government-owned media houses were generally underfunded. “I have gone all over and noticed that these Federal Government-owned media houses: NTA, FRCN, VON and NAN need massive fund injections to function effectively. They need to upgrade facilities. You can’t do anything – innovation, content development – when you don’t have money.”
On what he viewed as the evidence of financial deprivation in the media houses, he said, “The working environment is not good. You go to newsrooms that hardly have functioning air conditioners, as well as studios without the right equipment. Some of these organisations have no dependable source of power of their own. The moment there is no public power supply, they are helpless, and you know what that means with our epileptic public power supply. The moment public power goes off, they go off air. Even when there is power, in some of these places the lifts are not working. Ventilation system is dismal. When I went with some foreign journalists to the studio of one of them, we were sweating profusely.”
Speaking of how the situation affects members of the NUJ in those organisations, Leman said, “Staff welfare is a major problem in those organisations. I’ve spoken to many journalists in the organisations and they are not happy. The salary is meager. We have been agitating for improved salary for the journalists who work in these media establishments. You cannot criticise the media houses for not being efficient when you don’t give them what they require. And you cannot punish anybody for not performing when you don’t provide them with the wherewithal to perform: when they don’t have adequate means of transportation, when they don’t have equipment to work with.”
The national secretary of the NUJ indeed became the voice of the workers who would not talk, apparently for the fear of victimisation. Surprisingly, however, many of the FRCN workers who spoke to Daily Trust on Sunday were modest in their complaints, possibly because they understood the present economic situation in the country or, as the new management of the Corpoation later maintained, they had done alot to deal with some of the challenges.
On May last year, the Federal Government announced new chief executives for its media organisations, naming Dr Mansur Liman as the Director-General of the FRCN.
Liman agreed that the FRCN had constraints, but said that much had been done and is being done to tackle the challenges there.
He said, “Broadcasting has to be exciting. If it’s boring, the listener will tune off. This is because radio is not something people typically sit down and devote all attention to. They are almost always doing other things while listening to radio. You have to make your radio programmes engaging if you want enough of your listeners’ divided attention.
“So, inside the news we try to include more voices instead of reporters sending in reports without such necessary voices of newsmakers.
“Also, within the news delivery, we try to have interviews, especially in our 7 o’clock network news. In that programme now, we have studio guests who appear live. We have voices of people in events being reported. We introduce these and other things to make the programme appealing because it lasts a whole hour and we know it’s difficult for people to sit or devote that much time to a radio programme.”
He said the Gwagwalada station, which had not functioned for about four years, was fixed after a new transmitter was procured. Also, the Kaduna station, which was epileptic, now runs regularly after one of the malfunctioning transmitters was repaired and outstanding electricity bills paid.
On staff welfare, Liman said he introduced an open-door policy which encouraged staff to approach him on issues requiring his attention, adding that he provided working tools to enhance performance.
“One of the complaints I got was that people were buying their own equipment to report for Radio Nigeria. We regarded that as unacceptable, so within our limited resources we started procuring some equipment that would get quality audio recording for our reporters,” he explained.
He further said he introduced a policy to reward members of staff who work beyond eight hours a day on any occasion, adding that promotion of junior workers had been done, and that of senior staff was ongoing.
“We have had to open up and create positions because people shouldn’t stagnate on the basis of inadequate vacancies. It is not the fault of staff members that there are no positions. We opened up space so that people can move up,” he said.
On self-censorship and stereotyping of reporters in government-owned media organisations he said, “Since I came in, nobody has asked me not to touch any issue. As professionals, we must do our stories in ways prescribed by the ethical demands of the job. I explain to members of staff that as long as they do their stories with objectivity, balance, accuracy, and fairness they should feel okay.”
