As we made our way in a spirited fashion to catch our Port
Harcourt Rivers State bound Air Peace Flight from Abuja, different thoughts
flashed through my subconscious regarding the essence of our trip to the crude
oil rich city.
Yours faithfully headed a three member delegation to the Garden
city precisely for a capacity building talkshop or what the coordinating team
from Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) called interactive
session with the media and civil society community in Port Harcourt Rivers
State on building a seamless synergy between media; civil society practitioners
and the military on evolving responsible Security reporting.
As soon as we settled down in the flight that was unusually
boarded as at when due, one of the team members kick started a conversation
around the issue of the best global practices in reporting security issues
particularly as much of the North East of Nigeria are engulfed in terrorists
attacks from the dreaded boko haram terrorists affiliated to the Islamic state
of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). So the one hour flight to Port Harcourt was used as
an avenue to fundamentally trash the nitty gritty of how best to report the
Defence sector in such a way as not to compromise national security nor
undermine the watchdog roles of the media.
I then urged my team members to await the explosive one hour
lecture to be delivered by Professor Godwin Okon of the Mass Communications
Department of the Rivers state University.
I also reminded them that we had contacted a Port Harcourt based
legal practitioner Mrs. Queeneth Kelsey to take up the theme of Between
National security and media laws: friends or foes.
True to my prediction, Professor Godwin Okon delivered a
beautiful lecture on the Functionality of social responsibility role of the
Nigerian media.
He stated that cultural norms typology enjoins the mass media to
give an account of the day’s events in a context that gives them meaning. In
other words, the mass media ought to serve as the repertoire of information
needed to advance knowledge through rational discourse. Information as
contextualized above is key and central to all forms of activities in
humanistic settings. Every individual needs information to adapt knowledgably
to the society while reacting intelligently to the environment.
Okon then asked the question of what is the fundamental essence
of mrdia practice in a Country. According to him, the surveillance
function of the mass media draws expression from the notions of social
responsibility. Surveillance in this context relates to the constant flow of
public information or news about events occurring within the country and in the
world. The news and information role of the mass media make them the watch dog
and sentinel of society.
When news is properly reported in the order of the 5Ws
& H, the reader does not only stand to benefit from the on-the-spot
assessment of the situation but also stands to gain a full understanding of the
ultimate meaning and significance of events. Bryant and Thompson (2002) have
streamlined cognate functions the mass media are expected to play in humanistic
settings. As espoused by Galadima and Goshet (2013:15), these functions
include:
i. Surveillance
of contemporary events that are likely to affect citizens positively or
negatively.
ii. Identification of
major socio-political issues in the polity.
iii. Provision of
advocacy platforms for the articulation of various causes and interests.
iv. Transmission of
diverse contents, factions and dimensions of political discourse.
v. Scrutiny of
government officials, institutions and agencies.
vi. Giving incentives
and information to empower citizens to become actively informed participants
rather than mere spectators.
vii. Provision of robust
resistance to extraneous forces attempting to subvert media autonomy and
viii. Respectful consideration of
the audience as potentially interested, concerned and sense making citizens.
Furthermore, Oso (2012) citing Dahlgreen (2001) notes that
the mass media have been instrumental in globalizing the normative features of
democracy. Cursory observations show that media reports are replete with
accounts of politically motivated acts of violence. Somehow, it has been
entrenched in the consciousness of many that there can be no elections in
Nigeria without violence – that fear may be imaginary or worse still is blown
out of proportion. Emphatically, a culture of political violence can never be
allowed to give colouration to our political outlook.
Viewed from a spectrum of professions, journalism remains
a foremost profession that can enthrone a viable political culture and open a
vista of professional values quite capable of repositioning Nigeria’s democracy
in line with international best practices. The Nigeria legal framework aptly
acknowledges this as captured in section 22 of the 1999 constitution: “…
the press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all
times… uphold the fundamental objectives contained in the chapter and
responsibility of government to the people”.
What is however required to safeguard our vintage
democracy is for media organizations /journalists to develop a checklist for
enthroning a culture of empathy and social responsibility.
The cardinal role of the press is to inform, educate and
entertain and not to rock the ship of the state. This however balances out in
the spread sheet of what is right and acceptable versus what is wrong and
unacceptable bringing to force the framework of ethical considerations that
border on truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, fairness and public
accountability.
Since ethics help govern the dynamics of a profession,
their inherent benefits can indeed not be overemphasized. These benefits have
been streamlined according to the context of this paper as under listed:
i. They
provide a profession with a framework for understanding the concept of right
and wrong.
ii. They help
stimulate a ready understanding of how to react to certain situations long
before they occur.
iii. They serve as
legacies through which members of a professional body are able to show others
the correct way to act and behave under given conditions.
iv. They engender a
knowing-doing disposition among members of a professional body.
While it is important to recognize that government
business needs to be conducted in the open so as to make government records
open to inspection, there is also an overriding need to protect security and
diplomatic concerns.
News organizations serve as important watchdogs and their
mission is to scrutinize what the government does; particularly if government
conduct raises constitutional questions. The overriding job of the journalist
according to Black (1984) is to cover (exercise oversight) the government and
its use of power and authority. Conversely, the journalist needs to take a
close and careful look at institutions that serve the public interest with a view
to exercising oversight.
The journalist in this regard is the conscience of society
and should be accorded a place of honour in the general scheme of things. This
honour on its own attracts privileges and immunities. If this understanding
holds sway, there will be no place for the harassment, intimidation and assault
on journalists as often characterized by forceful snatching and smashing of
their cameras and handsets. The journalist deserves to be accorded protection
and indeed an enabling environment to serve the citizenry. These no doubt are
elements that embellish the concept of social responsibility bearing in mind
the underlying notions of freedom with responsibility in contradistinction to
freedom without responsibility.
The Way Forward
Descriptively, the social responsibility dynamics of the
media in an evolving nation like Nigeria fall within the purview of:
i.) Providing a
platform for the reinforcement of personal and social values through insight
and knowledge. This means that truth can only be found in media content.
ii.) Strengthening parameters
for integration and social interaction by eliciting empathy while precipitating
a sense of belonging.
iii.) Expressing values and
normative judgments inextricably mixed with news and entertainment.
The mass media however must exist not only by the
principles of press freedom but by the promise of social contract. The mass
media can fan the flames of social conscience and ignite the spirit of social
contract.
According to Mahatma Ghandi, the sole aim of journalism
should be service. The newspaper is a great power but just as an unchained
torrent of water submerges the whole countryside and devastates crops, even so
an uncontrolled pen serves to destroy…”
To synergize idealism and realism in the context of the
subject matter, the media need to;
iv.) Balance content – news,
information and views – with public interest by shunning things that may lead
to Afghanistanism.
v.) Reinforce the framework
for institutionalized self-regulation through press councils and professional
affiliations with a view to averting exogenous control.
vi.) Guide, adjudicate and advise
government and policy makers on the dynamics and mechanics of policy
formulation on security mechanics and implementation.
vii.) Consistently strive to acknowledge
errors of judgment through rejoinders and retractions.
viii.) Avoid activities and actions that lead to
conspiracies and spirals of silence.
ix.) Create a force for
constructive discourse analysis popularly known and referred to as the
“people’s parliament” thus allowing for a free market place of ideas.
Post Script
In espousing the dynamics of the political culture of
backwardness in potentially rich nations, the former World Bank president, J.D.
Wolfensohn, posits that ‘what differentiates poor people from rich people is
lack of voice, the inability to be represented, the inability to convey to the
people in authority what it is they think and the inability to have a search
light put on the conditions of inequality’. In a democracy powered
by the wish of the people, the mass media do not only keep the citizenry
informed but enable them to echo their voices in the chambers of power while
providing them with the basic facts necessary to monitor trends and moderate the
sources of power that shape their lives. This is the bedrock of a fundamental
culture of good democratic principles embellished in the ideals of ensuring an
egalitarian Nigerian state through social responsibility reverberations.
Participants were so thrilled by the presentation that was delivered expertly
by the erudite professor of Mass Communication. But wait for it: little
did they know that the Port Harcourt based litigation lawyer and a human rights
practitioner Mrs. Queeneth Kelsey has wrapped up another explosive lecture text
for immediate presentation after that of Professor Okon just as her topic was essentially
on the similarity or otherwise of media laws and National Security law. It
would be instructive to remind us that the connecting borderline in all of the
lectures and the other presentations from both HURIWA and the Army represented
by Colonel Aminu Iliyasu the Deputy Director of public Relations of the Army
who stood in for Brigadier General Sani Kukesheka Usman the Director of Public
Relations of the Nigerian Army was an integral interrogation on the love of
Country or love of Army. In other words, the entire spectrum of the
Presentation posed the question of who amongst the military and the media love
the Fatherland more given that the media is recognized in section 22 of the
Nigerian constitution even as the Nigerian military is captured and
encapsulated under section 217(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria. A general response emerged at the end if the intellectual harvest
which goes to show that both the media and the military are working to promote
public interest and therefore none should endanger the health of national
security in the discharge of their constitutional obligations. The Legal
practitioner Mrs. Queeneth Kelsey was at her best when she started by telling
the enthusiastic participants thus: "The
issue of national security is a fundamental issue in national and international
discourses".
She narrated that it is in recognition of the fact that her
paper explores the Nigerian perspective of how the operations of the mass media
and the law may encroach into each other’s domain as well as the implication of
such encroachment to national security.
The paper examines the set out issues
against the backdrop of the feeling that one views the mass media and law as
complementary sectors that could impinge on each other in the facilitation of
the operations of other sectors of the polity. The operation of law affects and
influences the way the mass media functions. In the same vein, the operations
of the mass media equally affect and influence the operation of law in certain
fundamental ways. Having examined the issue in focus, it argues that there is
no notable conflict between the operation of the mass media and the law.
The mass media, by their pre-eminent
position in national life, affect other sectors of national development. They
are also affected and influenced in their functions by the operations of other
sectors. It is against the backdrop of this feeling that one views the mass
media and law as complementary sectors that impinge on each other in the
facilitation of the operations of other sectors of the polity.
The operation of law affects and
influences the way the mass media function. In the same vein, the operations of
the mass media equally affect and influence the operation of law in certain
fundamental ways.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The Mass Media
Several scholars have variously
described the mass media as gadgets used to effect mass communication. For
example, Defleur and Dennis (1981) define the mass media as “devices for moving
messages across distance or time to accomplish mass communication.” The issue
of application of the term “mass media” to technical devices is crucial to the
understanding of the concept. In fact, the general acknowledgment of this
conceptual fact of the mass media has resulted in the terse submission of Uyo
(1987) that the mass media, being gadgets used to effect mass communication
cannot be practiced.
According to him, it amounts to sheer
“verbicide” to refer to anyone as a “media practitioner”, because one cannot
practice gadgets. He likens the pejorative use of this term to such unthinkable
expressions as a “teacher practicing blackboard” or “a doctor practicing
stethoscope.” Thus, those involved in the operations of the mass media are
gatekeepers who are responsible for the purveyance of information in the mass
communication process. They are, therefore part of the mass media.
MEANNG OF LAW
The law has been conceived in several
ways, depending on each scholar’s perspective. Aigbovo (2000), list some of
these definitions as follows:
Carl Liewellyn: What officials do about disputes. John
Austin: A command from a political superior to a political inferior backed
up with sanctions for its violations.
Oliver Wendel Holmes: The prophecies of what the courts
will do.
Sir Edward Coke: Perfection of reasoning.
Hans Kelsen: The primary norm which stipulates
the sanctions.
These definitions somewhat show the
practical aspects of law in the sense that they focus on the operation of law.
This has culminated in the emergence of various schools of thought representing
the different groups of scholars who view law from the same perspective. Thus,
we have positive law school, natural law school and utilitarian law school.
National Security
There is the erroneous equation of
national security with territorial security. Nigeria today can boast of
territorial security in the sense that it is fully protected against its
neighbours who cannot dream of attacking Nigeria on their own. Such a move would
be suicidal. But the country cannot place its national security on the same
pedestal as its territorial security. Ekoko (2004) has classified the
definitions of national security into two broad groups.
“The first is the military / strategic
concept of security and the second (is), non-strategic socio-economic” Quoting
the Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, he eventually defines security
as “the ability of a nation to protect its internal values from external
threat”. It is in the light of this definition that AI-Mashat (1985) in Ekoko
(2000) submits that national security transcends territorial defence and should
focus on the physical, social and psychological quality of life of a society
and its members, both in the domestic setting and within the larger regional
and global setting.
THE MASS MEDIA AND THE LAW
The mass media function in various ways.
However, the mass media’s basic function has to do with what Harold Lasswell
defines as communication. That is, “to tell people, who says what in the society,
to whom, when and how.” In carrying out this basic function, the mass
media perform various tasks that have been classified into four functions by
Wright (1960) and cited in Akindele and Lamidi (2001). These are:
FUNCTIONS
OF THE MASS MEDIA
·
Surveillance,
·
Correlation
of facts of the environment,
·
Transmission
of heritage, and
·
Entertainment.
The surveillance function involves mass
media operators having to nose into the nooks and crannies of the society to
fish out information that is of interest to the people. In correlation, the
media act to mediate even the taste of the people because they interpret the
information so gathered by sifting and discarding what may not be in the
interest of the people before purveying such information to them. By such
interpretation, they help to create values (for culture), which are then
transmitted from generation to generation.
NEXUS BETWEEN THE MASS MEDIA & LAW
The law contributes to the perpetration
of national security by ensuring that values are respected and protected. This
it does by the creation of norms which guide human conduct. It must seek to
punish any breach of values that may threaten national security. It must be
noted that national security is about people whose minds need to be geared
towards the defence of values that enhance their collective dignity, that would
make them secure from external aggression. The result of such a situation is
development.
The sacrosanct areas of law in this
regard, are those that concern the dignity of man which, if fully protected,
would enhance peace and progress in a nation. By this is meant Chapter Four of
the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended), which is on fundamental rights.
The chapter encapsulates Sections 33-46. The most relevant of these sections to
this paper, is Section 39 –the Right to Freedom of Expression and the
Press. Sub Section I of this section states that:
“Every person shall be entitled to
freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and
impart ideas and information without interference”.
·
The
operation of the mass media is provided for by this section. And it is in the
performance of their functions that the media collide with the law. It should
be noted that Subsection 3 of the Section (39) provides for enactments that
seek to punish aberrant use of the freedom so given in sub-section 1.
·
Mass
media operators are expected to operate within the confines of the laws guiding
their operations without prejudice to section 39 of the 1999 constitution. Some
of these laws include libel (encompassing seditious and blasphemous libel),
breach of confidence, copyright, contempt of court, leaking of official
secrets, invasion of privacy and so on.
·
National
security appears to be the protection of government officials. And in pursuance
of the realization of this security, media men are forbidden from purveying
information that is at variance with the interests of those in power. This
colonial view informed the colonial enactment entitled: The Seditious
Offences Bill of 1909, which aimed at punishing “publications that were
designed to inflame an excitable and ignorant populace” (Mytton 1983 in Ibagere
1996).
Implications for National Security
From the foregoing, it is clear that it
is not the encroachment of law into the domain of mass media that has grave
implications for national security. Neither is the encroachment of the mass
media into the precincts of law as epitomized in violation that is the problem.
The actual problem in the relation of both sectors lies with the despotic use
of power and in the unbridled manipulation of the law to protect selfish
primordial interests. This is why laws have been made with individuals in mind.
The Buhari, Babangida and Abacha regimes made laws specifically to punish media
organizations which published information that was not favourable to them. This
development known as ad hominem law is repugnant to natural justice
and good conscience.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
·
The
paper set out to explore the relationship between the mass media and the law.
It focused on how the operation of the mass media impinges on the law and how
the law is manipulated to encroach on media operations. These issues were
examined including their implications for national security. Having examined
the issue in focus, it is concluded that there is no notable conflict between the
operation of the mass media and the law.
·
Purvey
information with respect for human dignity. Such respect connotes the defence
of national values.
·
Information
dissemination should be done without malice against a perceived enemy, such
that the intention is to embarrass the person.
·
The
major aim of information dissemination should be to inform the people better
and improve their lot.
·
Gatekeepers
must have a sense of national security and seek to improve on it at all times.
Thus, whatever does not enhance the perpetration or perpetuation of our
established values should be discarded.
·
Gatekeepers
must abide by the rule of law as well as the established ethics guiding their
profession.
·
All
laws that hinder the performance of the duty of gatekeeper should be
repudiated. It is however fitting to end this piece by quoting the maxim of
Pope Gringory XVI which says: “but if the truth causes a scandal, then let a
scandal arise than the truth is abandoned. So go ahead, publish and broadcast
it if it is the truth”.
*Emmanuel Onwubiko is head of
Human rights Writers Association of Nigeria and blogs @ www.huriwanigeria.com; www.emmanuelonwubiko.com; www.huriwa@blogspot.com.
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