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The Nigerian Media; Fact And Fiction Prince Charles Dickson
Jos, Plateau
A lot of people in and outside
Let no one also deny the operational
cost of running a media house, especially in our harsh economic reality.
In battling the people, the media which in this essay includes
newspapers, radio and television houses, either private of state owned,
have resorted to fight the sense of the ordinary Nigerian, through
over-sensitively under-reporting and self-censorship of news. Despite
the availability of information, the media has been largely responsible
for an uninformed populace.
Pick three national dailies and all
we have is duplication of same news stories. Journalist have lost the
investigative touch, a lot of stories have been classified as the
writers imagination. Journalists invent stories and have turned to
creative writers and fiction authors. You cannot blame then, the very
common tools of his profession are unavailable, reporters attend
functions and want ‘qua’clusive (honorarium) that is black, brown or
green envelop before they write a story, and the weight of the envelope
determines the tone of the story. So therefore the organizers of a Press
event will budget 5,000 for 15 Journalists and term it Transportation
like we are dealing with some political thugs-harsh words but like they
say the truth is bitter and sure it hits hard.
The government also has been guilty,
while numerous private media houses did their jobs freely, there have
been numerous attacks. At times, persons critical of the government
through the media have faced reprisals. While top government officials
after being exposed resort to file expensive lawsuits against the media
house just to make the media organization spend from its lean resources.
Last year in May, seven universities
students were arrested and charged with sedition for distributing
leaflets articles of Jigawa State governor Saminu Turaki. Only one
government owned daily, the New Nigerian has been partially factual. The
NTA has been largely an appendix of the ruling party, censoring news to
the favor of the government and making certain the adage of he who pays
the piper stands firm. Anti-third term media houses have been
blacklisted while some other media houses have played from both sides of
the field to stay afloat.
The media has tested the pie of
political repression of the present error that calls itself government.
In January at an emergency meeting of the National Executive Council of
the ruling PDP, Police beat 11 Journalists and damaged cameras, a
Nigerian Tribune Journalist was hospitalized. Police claimed they were
acting on orders of the PDP officials not to allow journalist to cover
the meeting. Till today no action was taken or will be taken, its not
too long to have forgotten the treatment meted out to Journalists by
aides of Bola Tinubu, Abubakar Atiku, The Presiden’s media aide Remi Oyo
also got a fair share of the Police brutality even when she like the
typical government functionary tried calling a cat a rabbit by ‘lieing’.
The NBC suspended for one day the
broadcast license of DAAR Communications, which operates AIT and
Raypower Radio. For alleged unauthorized and unprofessional reporting
following the crash of Bellview Airline flight 210. This was in the face
of gross failure on government part to find the crash site, a site
littered with the Benjamins that allegedly had to be packed…one of those
rumors that Nigerians will never know the truth about because this is
Nigeria!
Editors have been guest to the SSS,
while security officials have demanded information regarding a story or
source. This has resulted in under-reporting and self-censorship. Sadly
and unfortunately, state funded media houses have remained tools for
government officials to stage their personal power wars, showcase states
‘in’accomplishments and to promote their political goals. For example
the NTA would never see an anti-third term rally but it will interview
every untrained mongrel in support of the third term, life Presidency
for a man that ought to be preparing handover notes.
It has remained largely difficult for
the media to balance its act, as it fakes the place of the fourth realm
of the estate, like everything Nigerian, the media is poorly equipped;
no news, and frequently denied access to information, unless when it is
government telling its normal lies. Our government find it easy and more
comfortable talking to the outside media or foreign media, thus the
continuation of ‘kolo’ mentality. When they talk to CNN, VOA, BBC of
this world they do so with a grin on their face but when correspondents
at home write stories of what is really on ground our leaders go
berserk. I recall it was Jerry Gana that went as far as trying to bribe
foreign Journalists, I am sure he thought it was just like his National
Media Tour Awards that we all know the trick behind the awards.
To a large extent, the media has been
a source of visual and audio constipation, content management has been
poor and the viewers and readers were the least in order of preference
because commercial gain is the art of business. Some newspapers are
simply an eye sore of all manners of self praise advertorials with empty
shallow praises. While some prominent media houses lift stories from
sources without even an acknowledgement, while others that claim to be
newspapers should rightly be referred to as bi-weekly papers or
‘reminders’ as they are loaded with stale news. Allah Mighty Allah the
custodian of truth and justice help us.
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