Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has secured another court victory against the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), as the Court of Appeal in Abuja struck out the commission’s appeal seeking to overturn a judgment barring it from imposing fines on broadcast stations.
In a unanimous decision delivered on Tuesday, Justice Jane Esienanwan Inyang held that the NBC’s Notice of Appeal was fundamentally defective and incompetent, depriving the appellate court of jurisdiction to hear the matter.
The court identified a discrepancy in the identity of the appellant, while the original case before the Federal High Court listed the parties as the Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda and the National Broadcasting Commission, the appeal was filed in the name of the “Nigerian Broadcasting Commission.”
Justice Inyang ruled that the inconsistency was a fundamental defect that rendered the appeal incompetent.
“The Notice of Appeal and the accompanying briefs are fundamentally defective and do not and cannot confer jurisdiction on this Court to hear and determine the appeal,” she held.
According to the court, a valid Notice of Appeal is the foundation of any appeal process, and where such a notice is defective, the court lacks the authority to entertain the case.
The appeal stemmed from a January 17, 2024 judgment by Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia of the Federal High Court in Lagos.
The suit was filed by MRA after the NBC imposed N5 million fines on four broadcast platforms on August 3, 2022 for airing documentaries on banditry and insecurity in Zamfara State, which the commission claimed undermined national security.
The affected organisations were Multichoice Nigeria Limited (DSTV), TelCom Satellite Limited (TSTV), Trust-TV Network Limited, and NTA Startimes Limited.
Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia ruled that the sanctions were unlawful and unconstitutional, holding that they violated the rights to freedom of expression and access to information guaranteed under Section 39 of the Nigerian Constitution and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Inyang stressed that jurisdiction cannot be conferred on a court through consent, waiver, acquiescence, or participation by parties.
She concluded that because the appeal was not initiated by the same legal entity that participated in the Federal High Court proceedings, there was effectively no valid appeal before the court.
The court subsequently struck out the appeal for incompetence.
The latest ruling comes months after the Court of Appeal, on April 2, 2026, dismissed another NBC appeal challenging an earlier judgment delivered by Justice James Omotosho on May 10, 2023.
In that judgment, Justice Omotosho held that fines are criminal sanctions and can only be imposed by courts of law, not by regulatory agencies.
The judge had also dismissed an NBC application in November 2023 seeking to set aside that decision, further strengthening judicial restrictions on the commission’s powers to impose fines on broadcasters.
