{"id":15646,"date":"2025-08-03T20:33:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T20:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=15646"},"modified":"2025-08-08T09:24:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T09:24:48","slug":"journalism-centre-slams-niger-gov-for-closing-badeggi-fm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/03\/journalism-centre-slams-niger-gov-for-closing-badeggi-fm\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalism centre slams Niger gov for closing Badeggi FM"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development has slammed the Governor of Niger State, Mohammed Bago, for ordering the closure of Badeggi FM Radio and the revocation of its broadcasting licence.

In a statement issued and signed by CJID\u2019s Deputy Director of Journalism Programme, Busola Ajibola, on Sunday, the centre expressed deep concern over what it called \u201can act of executive overreach and an outright abuse of state powers.\u201d

It further described the move as \u201ca grave assault on press freedom and a direct contravention of the Nigerian Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reports that the directive was made public on Friday, August 1, 2025, by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Bologi Ibrahim, who disclosed that the privately owned radio station was also marked for demolition and that its owner would be profiled by state authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CJID warned that such action is not within the powers of a state governor and that \u201cthe responsibility to regulate and revoke the license of a broadcast station rests exclusively with the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and not on a state governor,\u201d echoing the position of the Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris.

The organisation linked the shutdown of Badeggi FM to a \u201cdisturbing pattern of intimidation against journalists\u201d in Niger State under Bago\u2019s administration, listing previous incidents tracked by its Press Attack Tracker.

Among such incidents were the November 2023 assault on Mustapha Batsari of Voice of America and the repeated detention of the People\u2019s Daily correspondent in January and April 2025.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CJID also stated that Niger State ranked 11th on its recently released Subnational Openness Index, a ranking it said reflects \u201cone of Nigeria\u2019s hostile environments for journalists and independent media.\u201d

\u201cThe unilateral order by the governor constitutes an attack on the right of the people of the state to be informed and the right of the broadcast station to carry out its lawful duties of informing the public,\u201d the statement read.

\u201cAny grievances against the station\u2019s content or alleged unethical conduct should be directed to the National Media Complaints Commission (NMCC), otherwise known as the National Ombudsman or to the NBC through the proper legal channels,\u201d it added.

CJID also accused the state government of \u201cusing state security agencies to harass the media\u201d as a distraction from \u201cthe pervasive insecurity ravaging the state.\u201d

It demanded an immediate reversal of the governor\u2019s directive, urging security agencies in Niger State to \u201creject illegal orders and cease the harassment of journalists.\u201d

\u201cA free press is not an adversary to a functioning government; it is a fundamental pillar of democratic accountability,\u201d the statement concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development has slammed the Governor of Niger State, Mohammed Bago, for ordering the closure of Badeggi FM Radio and the revocation of its broadcasting licence. In a statement issued and signed by CJID\u2019s Deputy Director of Journalism Programme, Busola Ajibola, on Sunday, the centre expressed deep concern over what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-naija-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/images-32.jpeg?fit=712%2C431&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15646"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15944,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15646\/revisions\/15944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}