In a bid to tackle quacks in the broadcasting industry, the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), plans to establish the Nigerian society of Broadcasters, according to Mr Segun Olaleye, the Executive Secretary of the organisation.

Olaleye said Abuja on Tuesday, the establishment of the society had become imperative.

He said that the organisation would conduct examination for intending broadcasters before they commence practice as was done by other professional bodies.

``We have engaged with the National Assembly in terms of establishing the Nigerian Society of Broadcasters.

“We need to have the Nigerian Society of Broadcasters which is going to be a professional body.

``We want it to act like the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and others.

``You do examination before you can go and work anywhere. So, you cannot be a lawyer until you have studied law and gone to Law School. It is the same thing that we want to do.’’

Olaleye said that BON had trained staff of broadcast organisations on the 
need to actualise the objectives of migration to the digital system.

``We have done so much in the area of training in the last three years. It is actually free because we get support from various organisations to train our people.

``We have taken some of our Chief Executive Officers (CEO) in the last three years to Italy Broadcasting Organisation to see world broadcasting and various companies that manufacture equipment.’’

Olaleye said BON and other stakeholders collaborated with the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on different issues relating to the Digital Shift Over.

``Issues of licences to be offered to the people who are going to manufacture decoders, organisations to be signal distributors and people who are saddled with encoding.

``Our own special area is to train and educate our people,more especially staff of broadcast organisations on the need for various aspects of it,’’ he said.