Nigeria: Multichoice Fined N10m For Big Brother Africa 2 Porn Scandal

Multichoice Fined N10m


This Day (Lagos)


NEWS
24 November 2007
Posted to the web 24 November 2007

By Stanley Nkwazema
Abuja

Multichoice Nigeria has been fined N10 million for violating the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Act by showing "pornographic" scenes to viewers during the recently concluded Big Brother Africa 2 programme.

The Chairman, House Committee for Information and National Orientation, Honourable David Melaye who confirmed this to THISDAY said although Multichoice officials had earlier apologised, the punishment for the violation of the Act was inevitable.


The Committee, he said, was unanimous that the South African terrestrial service provider violated the Nigerian Broadcasting Act and must be punished accordingly.

Honourable Melaye said officials of the NBC and the Ministry of Information appealed against the $5 million fine which the House had earlier insisted that Mulitichoice should pay, relying on the provision of the Act which states that the supervising body should determine the amount to be meted to violators.

Officials of Multichoice had on Thursday November 22 in the House of Representatives apologised and also confirmed the sack of MNET's producer of the Big Brother Africa 2 Programme, Mr. Martins Ngubane, who produced the show on the day the Nigerian representative on the programme, Ofunneka Molokwu was harassed by one of the Housemates.

The superior officer who was supposed to screen that section, Mr. Stephen Waraner, according to MNET was also sanctioned for dereliction of duty.

The company explained that it took these decisions, following pressure from the House of Representatives that the Nigerian girl was not adequately protected and that viewers were treated with obscene pictures during the period.

The operations director of MNET Africa, Mr. Joseph Hunda who appeared at the House Committee Room 13 with eight other officials of the company including Ofunneka, apologised to Nigerians, stating that there were certain editorial guidelines spelt out for the producers of the programme which were not adhered to.

Hunda said, "those things were not supposed to come on anyway and we are sorry that it appeared and we will not allow it again."

He explained to the committee: "We commissioned MNET to come out with something that will project the image of Africa. We agree that there were certain things that were not acceptable to a large part of Nigerians. We have since had discussions with NBC and agreed that we are going to continuously use parental control on all DSTV channels. Our customers should be able to control their homes."

Honourable Melaye told the Multichoice officials that Nigerians were fed too much indecent clips during the period the programme was aired.

Melaye said: "We will not allow our image to be dragged on the floor. Ofunneka projected the image of Nigeria and we are proud of her. We had earlier banned clips, previews and full airing of the programme and we want you to apologise to Nigerians over what happened."

Hunda explained to the lawmakers that Multichoice has been making serious efforts towards encouraging more local content in its programmes, confirming that six local stations, AIT, Channels, Silverbird, MITV, NTA and Minaj Broadcasting International are already collaborating with Multichoice to add more local content.

He also said a new Programme, "Moments with Mo" aired thrice daily and produced in Nigeria is now on the DSTV channels.

Melaye also urged the company to get listed on the Nigerian stock exchange so that Nigerians can buy into the company as they have done in New York and Johannesburg.

He also told Hundah that Nigerians would want his company to engage in more serious corporate governance programmes so that the subscribers could have a sense of belonging.

i dey fear o!. thanx 2 youtube, i saw the clip . we men are in trouble! a drunken( or so she claimed) woman decides to shed her inhibitions( if they existed in the first place), and crawl all over me- and I'm the molester?


it seems they think ofunneka is a minor, not a 29 year old. it also seems our learned senators have never heard of a handy little item called a remote control.



how putting a few  twenty somethings in a house for 98 days is supposed to project the image of africa is beyond me


what image did she project? i think we all know the image of nigeria- a country of 419ers, corrupt governors, killer policemen, confident armed robbers, niger delta kidnap artistes, religious unrest. are these knuckleheads actually so dumb that they believe that 98 days on a tv show will reinforce nigeria's battered image?


o ma se o. mnet should have rigged the outcome so ofunneka won the $100,000. now they may have to pay $10,000,000. but who will get that money, if it is paid?

from what i saw on the clip, an intoxicated ofunneka came on agreesively to richard. me I'm not even sure she was drunk. it may sound chauvinistic, but i think she simply had the hots for the guy.

lets  say she was drunk- one camn assume intoxication suffieceiently overcame her inhibitions/boosted her nerve, and she made her move.

lets say she wasn't drunk- just faking - she could always claim that she was drunk when it happened. I'm sure we all know of chicks who have done that .

the girl was too ugly to be laid by choice so she had to fight 4 her right 2 be laid and those old clowns want to make some quick cash out of it?

they won't repair roads and provide good eduction, they will attack pornography which they enjoy themselves.

what of other pornos showed on action X.

all this is because she did not win. if she had won, I would have fined multichoice the same amt.

I just hate it when people say so many bad things about Ofuneka 

Let's use our heads and that girls character to judge her not her phisical looks.

Was it ever? ?

[email][/email]What would you recommend as earthly punishment for african sit tight,ruthless,wicked,African,unaccountable,corrupt,and die hard african 'leaders'