WITH DAN AGBESE

OMBUDSMAN

Many readers of the newspaper must have found it all shocking and revolting. Television reporters in Europe and the United States usually indulge in a feeding frenzy on tragedies that befall families.

They mine their trauma and grief. They have since found that the public is not all that impressed. They are now pulling back to show some sensitivity to grieving families and other victims of harrowing and mindless crimes. Let us give some serious thoughts to this. The Goofs We do not have much space left for goofs in this column. Let us consider just a few of them in the remaining space. I was surprised to see that two issues I had dealt with in an earlier column surfaced again this month. On page 44 of the June 23 issue of the Daily Trust, we find these two headlines: 1) “Man, 20, docked for allegedly defiling 5-year-old girl.” 2) “Man, 25, arraigned for allegedly stealing baby.”

The word allegedly does not belong in a headline. It belongs in the body of the story. If you take it out of the two headlines there is no damage done to them.

In the June 19 issue of the newspaper, we find this headline on page 6: “Darius accuses men of God for Taraba crisis.” The governor of Taraba State is Mr Darius Ishaku. I have once pointed out that it was wrong to use his first name. Use his family name: Ishaku. Accuses is also wrong in this context. It should be blames.

On page 7 of the June 20 issue of the newspaper, we find this headline: “Uphold integrity of judiciary, CJN tells new DongbanMensam.” Note the word new. I could find no evidence that there was an old justice by that name. Nor do I think the new president of the court of appeal became new on her assumption of office.

It is important to illustrate or accompany a story with a photograph because it makes for a visual appeal on the page and also reinforces the authenticity of the story itself. But danger lurks here. The inappropriate use of a photograph could be trouble for an editor because of something the lawyers call innuendo. If you accompany a criminal story with the photograph of a man who has nothing to do with the crime, the lawyers slap you with a charge of innuendo. So, consider this. On page 18 of the June 20 issue of the newspaper, we find this headline: “Uneasy calm as Dalung alleges theft of journalist’s sport initiative.” The full-page story was accompanied by the photograph of O. Adekouroye, the world’s number one wrestler. If you put it against the headline, it is instantly clear that the use of the photograph was inappropriate. Our editors should beware of offending lady wrestling champions.

On page 8 of the June 19 issue we find this headline: “Kano police charge 42 rape suspects to court.” This is a common mistake in the news media. Suspects are not charged to court; they are charged in court. The police take suspects to court and charge them in the open court.