While watching Information Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed responding to the documentary by the BBC Africa and Daily Trust TV on terrorism in the country, I could feel his worries and pain, though he tried hard to put up a bold face with the threat to sanction the two media organisation.
I’m not sure what he meant that the stations will not get away with what they did by showing the faces of terrorists as if they were Nollywood stars, but I have an idea that it may be the usual illegal clampdown as usual which will attract lots of condemnation.
As the minister rightly said, publicity is indeed the oxygen terrorists need to intensify their nefarious activities. The more visibility they get for their endless killings, kidnappings, attacks and threats, the more emboldened they are.
It’s not for nothing that they churn out videos and voice messages to give a peep into their camps where they are holding innocent persons to make them appeal to their families and the authorities to pay a ransom, they need to reinforce the impression about how supposedly deadly they are.
They need to appear as vicious as possible and brag about what they have done and are capable of doing even when they don’t have the capacity to do some of the things they are credited for.
Unfortunately, the media is caught in the dilemma of broadcasting the terrorists’ images to indicate the true state of the terrorism in the country and being retrained as Mohammed and many others want them to.
If the minister has his way, the media should give the terrorist atrocities a blackout. He and other governments’ spokesmen would rather the media report the claim that the terrorists have been decimated and are on the run. Available evidence however does not suggest that the government is on top of the issue as it claims.
Every day we see evidence that the terrorists are getting bolder and can carry out their threats including abducting the President and Kaduna State Governor which. If they could storm the supposedly fortified Kuje prison in Abuja and kill some members of the Presidential elite guards, there is a need cause for everyone to be alarmed about the looming danger.
How can many of the passengers on the Abuja/Kaduna train attacked by terrorists months ago still remain in detention and some family members and associates are being forced to pay millions of naira to secure the release of their loved ones despite the security meetings held by President Mohammed Buhari on the matter?
The attack and many others should not have happened in the first place if the government is to be believed that our security forces have what it takes to cut the terrorists to size. Not even the President’s home town, Funtua and state have been spared in the rounds of killings across the country.
I share the minister’s concern about the possible glorification of the crime committed by the terrorists with the documentary and interviews, but this is definitely not what the media organisations set out to do and it may not be right to accuse them of such.
As much as the media need to provide insightful reports on major issues like terrorism, it is necessary that media organisations in accordance with the ethics of the profession “not present or report acts of violence, armed robberies, terrorist activities or vulgar display of wealth in a manner that glorifies such acts in the eyes of the public.”
Instead of fishing for how to sanction BBC Africa and Daily Trust, the federal government should find useful insights in the reports that can help in its efforts to curb terrorism in the country. The media organisations should not be seen as “enemies”, but as partners in the anti-terrorism battle.
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