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ABSTRACT
This study examined the influence of government policies on broadcasting, using EBS, Benin as a case study. It argues that conflicting government policies put journalists in a difficult state where they struggle to satisfy two responsibilities – serving government’s interest and satisfying the people’s quest for objective and adequate news representation. The study aims at finding out how journalists balance the government policy that demands broadcast stations to serve government interest by explaining new policies and intentions while adhering to the tenets of fairness, balance and factuality in broadcasting as contained in item 2.6 (iv) and 2.3 (i) of the station’s operational guideline. The Gatekeeping theory of the media was employed and survey was used as research method. A census of all the journalists in the station was done. Data were collected using questionnaire. Findings revealed that, journalists in the station managed conflicting government policies through neutrality in broadcasting that is, desisting from injecting their personal views in their broadcasting but sticking to what their employers want. It was equally found that 52.7 per cent of the respondents out of the sample population hold that the government policy that calls for broadcast stations to serve government interest negatively affects the professional ethics of balance in news broadcasting as journalists are constrained by policy interest. The study also revealed that 54.9 per cent respondents agree that government sometimes interfere with editorial decisions of journalists in EBS, Benin. Based on the findings, it was recommended that government policies should be devoid of conflicting provisions; and public broadcast outfits should take public interest as a watch word. Also, there should be media autonomy in Government owned media in Nigeria in order for broadcast stations to independently generate revenues, pay staff and give journalists a free hand to carry out their duties.
