Emerging report indicates that the Media Chiefs in the country have said that the Media will not be controlled by the President Muhammadu Buhari Federal Government, on what to report or not report.
The Media Chiefs were reacting to the directive of the Federal Government that the Media should not report “details” of the activities of bandits, terrorists, and kidnappers in the country.
The President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, Mustapha Isah; National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Chris Isiguzo; and the Executive Director, Centre for Media Law and Advocacy, CMLA, Richard Akinnola; made this known in separate interviews with Saturday PUNCH, on Friday.
They advised the Federal Government 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.
Recall, that the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, had announced that Television and Radio Stations in the country, should no longer “glamourise the nefarious activities of insurgents”, during their daily newspaper reviews.
Reacting, the NGE President said that he agrees with the NBC that Broadcast Stations should not glamourise the activities of insurgents, but added that the government could not tell the Media how to tailor its reports.
His words: “The NBC said broadcast stations should not glamourise terrorist activities which I agree with, but I have a problem with the issue of ‘do not report details of attack’. I do not 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 do not 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 do not 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.”
Also, the NUJ President stated that the NUJ would ensure that the Media space was not compressed in Nigeria under any guise.
He said: “This latest directive must be reviewed by the Commission. The NBC must also ensure that its actions are in line with international best practices, and must conform with time-tested models from other nations.
“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.”
Also, the Socio-Economic Right and Accountability Project, SERAP, kicked against the NBC directive, and asked the government to withdraw the directive.
In a statement, SERAP urged President Buhari to withdraw the order.
“We urge President Buhari to instruct the NBC to immediately withdraw its illegal order to TV and radio stations not to divulge “details” of the activities of terrorists and kidnappers in their reports.
“We will sue if this sweeping gag order is not immediately withdrawn.”