A prominent non-governmental and
pro-democracy group – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has
threatened to report to the Nigerian press council a suspected fake news
carried by Nigeria Daily.com on a certain All Progressives Congress (APC)
governor purportedly receiving bribe of over $5 million from a contractor.
The pro-media integrity
organization (HURIWA) through its National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel
Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf however
stated that it has sent a letter to the affected medium to remove the offensive
news item or provide irrefutable evidence including verified forensic
investigative findings to conclusively affirm the authenticity of that
suspected fake news or be prepared to face inquisition from the Press Council,
the official ombudsmen of the Print media industry. HURIWA said it gave the
online medium 78 hours to effect corrective measures and stop misinforming its
readers or the organization will not hesitate to follow due process to obtain
remedy on behalf of consumers of media contents in Nigeria. The group faulted
the quality control employed by the affected news medium which informed the
uploading of such a sensational fake news targeting a perceived political
opponent of the sponsor of the entire scripts.
HURIWA asserted that the
publication on the alleged bribery affecting an unnamed APC governor was a pure
blackmail given that the publisher of the website has suspected links to an
erstwhile presidential aspirant in Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former
governor of Kano state Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso who is nursing ambitions of
supplanting his son-in-law as Kano state governor. HURIWA expressed shock that
this sort of unprintable news item could be uploaded for public view when the
elements critical to objective, balanced and professional and Ethically correct
procedures are flouted by the online medium which is supposed to be
professionally owned and governed. HURIWA is also planning to write the
professional body of online publishers in Nigeria to ask them to investigate
the affected news medium.
“We have conducted detailed
investigation and found out that the author of the said story on the unnamed
North West governor caught in camera collecting bribe in foreign denominated
currency running to over $5 million was a key media strategist of the
politician and former governor of Kano state and was indeed his senor Special
Assistant on media as the then governor of Kano state. Our team of forensic
media analysts have thoroughly gone through that sensational story and found
several elements that shows that the story is not only fake but a product of
pure political blackmail which must not be allowed to be swept under the
carpets.”
“As campaigners for media
integrity, we have asked the writer to pull out the fake story because of the
clear and unambiguous fact that it was indeed planted for primitive political
motive and meant to misguide and misinform voters with the aim of tarnishing
the image of a politician.”
Daily Nigerian reported that a
Nigerian governor from one of the North West states has been caught on spy
camera receiving kickbacks in hard currency for various projects executed by
his administration.
The governor, who is gunning for
his second term on the platform of ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, may
likely be dropped due to the damning evidence of corruption against him.
In the three-episode clips seen by
DAILY NIGERIAN reporter, the governor was shown on different dates receiving
the bribe amounting to about 5 million dollars in total.
In one of the clips, this reporter
watched how the governor, who appeared without a cap, took note of the names of
contractors who paid the kickback and later tucked the bundles of dollar notes
into his kaftan side pockets and trousers’ pockets.
In another video, appearing
in babbarriga and a cap, this reporter watched how the
governor collected nearly 3 million dollars, being 25 percent kickbacks for
selling market stalls.
DAILY NIGERIAN graphics expert, who
was also invited to a secret meeting to ascertain whether the videos were
genuine, confirmed that they were not doctored.
HURIWA however disputes the
veracity of that video and alleged that it is an attempt to adopt the 'Russian
type' of circulation of fake news to influence the outcomes of next year’s
election even as the target of the blackmail is the ruling All Progressives
Congress (APC).
“We will not stop until we get to
the root of this story by adopting professional means to ascertain why the
online medium deployed their forum to scandalize a politician who may not be in
the good books of the publisher’s former employer and former governor of Kano
state.”
Earlier in a press briefing, HURIWA
affirmed thus: “Gentlemen of the media, we are
here to call your attention to the need for media practitioners to be
professionally disciplined and not give into any temptations to be deployed for
political blackmail which will derail the essence of the media as the conscience
of the nation.”
“Section 22 of the 1999
constitution provides that “the press, radio television and other agencies of
the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives
contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of
the government to the people.”
“The media is therefore
the bridge between the people and the political leaders.”
Understandably, we are
rights now preparing for the biggest and most important electoral contest in
the political annals of Nigeria. So much are at stake.
The contenders are
already sharpening their political arsenals to battle and defeat their
opponents in a bid to win the hearts and minds of Nigerians.
However, we have just
noticed a trend which has to do with the misuse and abuse of the professional
ethics of media practice by an online medium reportedly owned and operated by
an erstwhile chief press secretary to the former governor of Kano state Alhaji
Kwankwaso known as Daily Nigeria.
We have noticed that
there is currently an attempt to tarnish the corporate and public image of a
politician with the aim of scuttling his second term ambitions.
First, we are one of
the most formidable campaigners of transparency, accountability and we
therefore support the law based crusade against corruption.
However, we totally
condemned the systematic pattern of employing subtle blackmail using the media
of mass communication as the tool of political battles.
The story about a
certain North West governor of the APC purportedly caught receiving bribe is at
best a very poor work of blackmail.
Going through the
wishy-washy story will tell the audience that this online medium did a very
poor job that fails to meet the ethical standards of best global practices. The
revelation that a video exists without naming the person and again stating that
the video would be used to seek the directive of the president to compel the
alleged bribe taker to forego his second term election shows that this medium
has allowed their good venture to be deployed to wage political battle.
The fears about the
political ends to which the media can be put relate to the way the media can be
used by political parties to control people. While totalitarian fascist and
communist states of the 1930s inspired these fears, political uses of the media
also occur in democratic societies.
It is often argued that
there should be controls placed over the media so they are not misused. Fear
that the media may be used for political purposes is one reason why many
countries insist that the government should not own and/or control the media;
this fear also lies behind many of the debates about who has the right to media
ownership. Note, however that media practitioners often see themselves as
political watchdogs, and in this respect are referred to as the ‘fourth
estate’. The term ‘estate’ derives from the time of the French Revolution, when
the judiciary, the parliament, and the Church were referred to as the first,
second, and third estates respectively. The media, as the fourth estate, are a
body who can comment on, criticize, and investigate, through free speech, what
these other institutions do, which is why freedom of the press is so important.
It was, for instance, the media that publicized the crimes against humanity
perpetrated by the South African apartheid government. “From the book MEDIA
& SOCIETY fourth edition, By MICHAEL O’SHAUGHNESSY & JANE STADLER.
May we strongly urge
the media to be thoroughly professional and not let themselves be railroaded
into carrying out political vendetta or blackmail.
Why use a story and
then allow room for negotiations? If you have a story worth telling and you
have no political objective for cooking up such soft tissues of lies, why not
go full blast?
This unorthodox way of
practicing journalism is the reason some core conservatives who wants the
status quo to remain are working had to scuttle media freedoms.
Our investigations on
this specific story shows that it is a well-choreographed, politically tainted
propaganda aimed at demonizing a prominent politician and to rubbish some of
the achievements made. There is every reason to believe that it is a
politically motivated hatchet job which should be dismissed as such.
May we call on all
political contenders for political offices to play the game by the rules and
desist from the deployment of the online, social or mainstream media to
circulate fabrications and inventors aimed at scoring political goals. The
media must be vigilant and work to sustain constitutional democracy.
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