Northern state bans private broadcaster

The government of Kano in northern Nigeria has banned a private media house, Daar Communication, from the state on "cultural and religious grounds", Nigerian state radio reported.

Daar Communications runs one television and two radio stations. A media source contacted by IRIN on Friday said it may have been banned in Kano because "it was thought that the owners of the radio were going beyond the radius assigned".

The source also said that apart from undertaking re-broadcasts of BBC programmes, the station was devoting much airtime to rap and other types of pop music that "might be considered offensive by Islamic state governments in northern Nigeria which have adopted strict Sharia".

Daar communication was the first company to set up a private FM station in Nigeria after an old law which restricted ownership of broadcast media to federal and state governments was repealed in 1992. It owns the Ray Power FM, the African Independent Television and the Ray Power Two FM.