Media chiefs in the country have said the media won’t be deterred by the directive of the Federal Government that the media should not divulge details of the activities of bandits, terrorists and kidnappers in their reports.
The media chiefs were reacting to a directive by the National Broadcasting Commission that television and radio stations in Nigeria should not glamourise the nefarious activities of insurgents during their daily newspaper reviews.
The NBC, in a letter dated July 7, 2021, issued to television and radio stations, stressed the need for “caution” by broadcasters while reporting security challenges in the country.
The letter titled, ‘Newspaper Reviews And Current Affairs Programmes: A Need For Caution’, was signed by the Director, Broadcast Monitoring, Francisca Aiyetan, on behalf of the new Director-General of the Commission, Balarabe Ilelah.
But the President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Mustapha Isah; the National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Chris Isiguzo; and the Executive Director, Centre for Media Law and Advocacy, Richard Akinnola, said the media writes on these activities and does not create them.
Punch reports that they advised the government of Muhammadu Buhari to tackle the security challenges in the country and desist from its attempts to gag the media through the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.
Isah said he agreed with the NBC that broadcast stations should not glamourise the activities of insurgents but stated emphatically that the government could not tell the media how to tailor its reports.
“The NBC said broadcast stations should not glamourise terrorist activities which I agree with but I have a problem with the issue of ‘don’t report details of attack’. I don’t know what the NBC mean by that. If there is an attack and certain people die, are you saying that I should not report it? If there is an attack and 20 students are kidnapped, are you saying that broadcast platforms should not report the number?
“I have not seen any media house report details of a planned operation by the military on bandits and terrorists. The media does not do that for security purposes and I don’t think we will ever do that.
“The government cannot tell us how to do how report. This is why we are clearly against the Nigeria Press Council Act. The media does not create events; we report events. If there is a terrorist attack, we will report it. In fact, if we don’t report it, that means we are not doing our job. We will not stop doing that, we will not stop reporting events despite the threats,” Isah said.
Akintola on the other hand said, “Akintola said, “It is quite unfortunate but it is difficult to gag the Nigerian Press going by its history, no matter the extrajudicial means. It is not possible. If the military failed, there is no way any government will succeed.
“The government has failed in the aspect of insecurity and this is a subtle effort to cover the inadequacy of the government.”