MEDIA IN NIGERIA #02 - 36 (22 SEPTEMBER 2003)

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MEDIA IN NIGERIA is a weekly publication on developments within and
affecting the media/communication/freedom of expression sector in Nigeria.

It is an initiative of the Institute for Media and Society (IMS), a
non-profit,
non-governmental organization based in Lagos, Nigeria.
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NEWS

MEDIA - GENERAL
-ASO ROCK EXPELS REPORTER
-WHY OVERSEAS INFORMATION CENTRES WERE SHUT-CHIKELU
-JOURNALIST SUFFERS ILLEGAL DETENTION

PRINT MEDIA
-NIGERIAN WINS LITERATURE PRIZE
-THIS DAY GOES PUBLIC

INFOTECH
-NITEL'S N27B DEBT UNRECOVERABLE - NEIC
-EMRACE PER SECOND BILLING, NCC ORDERS GSM OPERATORS
-BOARDROOM SQUABBLE TAKES TOLL ON ECONET

THE ARTS
-GOVERNMENT ACCUSED OF COPYRIGHTS VIOLATIONS

MEDIA-GENERAL

ASO ROCK EXPELS REPORTER

A reporter with The Monitor newspaper attached to the Presidential villa,
also known as Aso Rock, Mr. Cyril Mbah, has been expelled from the villa,
and banned from reporting the activities of the Presidency.

The expulsion order on Mbah is widely believed to be in connection with a
comment in his weekly column in The Monitor on Sunday. Mbah had lambasted
President Olusegun Obasanjo over his trouble - shooting trips across the
West African region while unsolved problems remained at home in Nigeria.

The publication reportedly drew the ire of the President, at whose prompting
security operatives of the villa withdrew Mbah's accredition and banished
him.

WHY OVERSEAS INFORMATION CENTRES WERE SHUT-CHIKELU

The 12 Nigerian information centres abroad which were recently closed down
on the order of the Nigerian government, were shut due to serious financial
constraints.

Making this disclosure at an interactive session with journalists in Abuja,
Chukwuemeka Chikelu, Minister of Information and National Orientation, said
the decision was taken due to what he called "budget constraints".

"Most of the time, they (information attaches) have been abandoned abroad
without payment of their allowances and salaries. What we are trying to do
is to explore alternative ways of doing their functions from the end of the
mother ministry here in Nigeria", he declared.

JOURNALIST SUFFERS ILLEGAL DETENTION

For questioning the judgment of a policeman who ordered a driver detained
for failure to carry a road-worthiness certificate, Rotimi Oyekanmi, a
reporter with The Guardian Newspaper, spent six hours in a police cell in
Ogbomoso, Oyo State, South-west Nigeria.

Narrating his ordeal, Oyekanmi said he was traveling from Lagos to Ilorin,
Kwara State for an assignment on August 23. At a spot in Ogbomoso, the
vehicle in which he was traveling was flagged down by a team of policemen on
stop-and-search duties. They requested for the vehicle particulars from the
driver who obliged them, only for them to discover that the road-worthiness
certificate was missing.

For this, a mobile policemen, against the decision of his superior officer,
ordered the driver to be detained. Not only was Oyekanmi's journey aborted,
he was also clamped into a six-hour detention by the same officer who took
offence at his effrontery in questioning his (policeman's) decision to
override the decision of his superior.

He said he only regained his freedom after being forced to write an apology
by an insensitive Divisional Police Officer, DPO.

PRINT MEDIA

NIGERIAN WINS LITERATURE PRIZE

A United States-based Nigerian writer, Chima-manda Ngozi Adichie, has
emerged winner of the 2002/2003 David T.K. Wong Prize for Fiction, a PEN
International Literary award.

Adichie, according to a statement by trustees of the PEN Foundation, won the
award with her story "Half of a yellow sun".

Adichie is expected to be presented with her prize at PEN'S International
Congress slated for Mexico this November.

The novel version of the award winning story is being expected.

The writer, who is a graduate student of Johns Hopkins University, United
States, was shortlisted for the 2002 Caine Prize for African Short stories,
won by a Kenyan last year.

THIS DAY GOES PUBLIC

Leaders and Company Limited, publishers of This Day, one of the leading
independent newspapers in Nigeria, would soon join the league of quoted
companies, following plans by the management to float the company in the
Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Nduka Obaigbena, Chief Executive of the newspaper which began publishing in
1995, declared at a reception held for staff of the newspaper appointed into
political offices in government, that the company would attain the status of
a quoted firm in eighteen months.

He revealed that Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and Corporate Finance Group have
been appointed financial advisers and issuing house to oversee the
floatation.

He indicated that preference would be given to staff members in the sale of
the company's equity. According to Obaigbena, 10 percent shares would be
offered directly to the management staff, while other staff would also have
the opportunity of bringing up to 10 percent in a staff share scheme.

In line with his vision for the emerging newspaper conglomerate, Obaigbena
also revealled that the South Africa subsidiary, THIS DAY(Pty) Limited,
would be floated on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange between three and four
years.

When implemented, This Day could emerge as the first privately owned
newspaper in Nigeria to be quoted on the Stock Exchange.

INFOTECH

NITEL'S N27B DEBT UNRECOVERABLE - NEIC

Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) may have lost N27 billion of the
over N49 billion owed it by its customers, The National Economic
Intelligence Committee (NEIC) in its second quarterly report on the economy
declared N27 billion of the total traffic debt owed Nitel by its subscribers
as technically bad.

The committee's chairman, Ibrahim Ayagi, told journalists in Abuja, the
federal capital, that the bulk of the 49.519 billion debt which is owed by
government agencies is unrecoverable.

He blamed the huge traffic debt on over- centralization of authority and
administration at the Head Office of the company.

EMBRACE PER SECOND BILLING, NCC ORDERS GSM OPERATORS

Following the introduction of per-second billing by Globacom, the Nigerian
Telecommunications Commission (NCC) has ordered other Global System of
Mobile Communications (GSM) operators in the country to embrace the
per-second billing system.

Ernest Ndukwe, NCC's Executive Vice Chairman, who dropped the hint at a
meeting with Federal Legislators in Abuja, said the commission has opened
negotiations with the operators "to migrate from per minute billing to per
second".

He said the commission was pursuing the objective of reducing the cost of
GSM services alongside the important task of ensuring an enabling
environment for the operators.

GSM subscribers protesting against poor and prohibitive cost of the services
by operators on September 19 switched off their phones to press home their
grievances.

The measure was aimed at forcing the operators to reduce their tariff.

One of the leading operators, MTN Nigerian Communications Limited, has
already indicated its willingness to embrace the per-second billing system.
Adrian Wood, the Company's Chief Executive said the switch was originally
programmed to be effected in the fourth year of the company's operation but
would be brought forward. The switch, he said, would cost the company $40m.

BOARDROOM SQUABBLE TAKES TOLL ON ECONET

A leading Global system of mobile communication (GSM) company in Nigeria,
Econet Wireless Nigeria Limited, is threatened by a major boardroom crisis
following the interest of Vodacom, South Africa - based international
telecom firm, in taking up majority equity stake in the company which is
hard pressed for fund for urgent expansion and network up-grades.

The Vodacom move was expected to inject over $130 million into the company
in equity investment.

But the deal, endorsed by Nigerian directors of the company has drawn fierce
opposition from Econet Wireless of Zimbabwe, the parent company of Econet
Wireless Nigeria. The company has asked the Federal High Court in Lagos to
stop the deal. Econet Zimbabwe's Chief Executive, Strive Masiyiwa, is also
asking the Federal High Court in Lagos to restrain the board and
shareholders of Econet wireless Nigeria from changing the company's
management and corporate identity as well offering its shares to
Telece/International Limited and the Egyptian telecom giant, Orascom.

Roseline Ukeje, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court has fixed October 6
for hearing on the preliminary objection to the Econet Zimbabwe suit filed
by some of the Nigerian Shareholders of the company.

THE ARTS

GOVERNMENT ACCUSED OF COPYRIGHTS VIOLATIONS

In what appears like a case of the enforcer becoming the culprit, members of
the Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria (PMAN) and
Mechanical Rights Society (PMRS) have accused the government of infringement
on their copyrights.

The groups, at a recent meeting with the Minister of Culture and Tourism,
Franklin Ogbuewu, accused the government of rip-off, alleging that 90 - 95
percent of music played on government broadcast stations were without
royalties to their members.

The groups urged the government to demonstrate its much - vaunted commitment
to copyrights protection by enforcing the laws setting up the Nigeria
Copyrights Commission (NCC) and improving its funding.

But the minister, in his response, said the agency's funding would not be
improved, until it is able to prove that it is serious about enforcing
copyright laws in the country.