Media: Dealing with authorities’ confrontations

The recent outburst by Fani Kayode, a lawyer and a former Minister of Aviation over a question by Daily Trust reporter on who is ‘bankrolling’ his trips for inspection of projects in some states, has brought to the fore the usual global confrontations between authorities and journalists. Daniel Obi looks deeper into reasons for these feuds.

The position of authorities, either in public or private sector with position of journalists globally is usually at variance. High placed individuals are cultured to perform certain deals covertly while journalists are trained to uncover the deals and present the information as news reports for public consumption and in the interest of the nation. This is the critical meeting point between journalists and authorities. It often generates feud.

This meeting point where authorities sometimes try to deal surreptitiously with certain issues or cover some facts and where journalists, within the law of freedom of expression, privacy, defamation and national interest, dig deep to unearth those issues have led to confrontations.

Some of these confrontations have resulted in the death, incarceration and sack of journalists all over the world, Nigeria inclusive. In the recent time, these incidences of intimidation, incarceration and murder of journalists have escalated on the account of growing quest to cover rising sleaze, spurious deals and corruption among authorities.

Forty-nine journalists were killed across the world in 2019, according to Reporters Without Borders. Washington Post in December last year reported that over the past decade, at least 554 journalists and 49 media workers were killed around the world. Within the same period, hundreds more media workers were arrested, threatened or attacked because of their work.

The assassination of Jamal Khashoggi— a Saudi Arabian journalist for The Washington Post, former general manager and editor- in- chief of the AlArab News Channel, on 2 October 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, allegedly perpetrated by agents of the Saudi government was simply gruesome. In fact “being a journalist has never been more dangerous”.

Nigeria has had its share of journalists’ intimidation, harassment and killing. Buhari, as military Head of State in 1983-85, promulgated Decree 4, which did not take kindly to press criticisms. This saw two Nigerian journalists jailed. Drafted on March 29, 1984, Decree No. 4 was repressive.

Section 1, sub-sections (i), (ii) and (iii) of the Decree - provided that: “Any person who publishes in any form, whether written or otherwise, any message, rumour, report or statement, being a message, rumour, statement or report which is false in any material particular or which brings or is calculated to bring the Federal Military Government or the Government of a state or public officer to ridicule or disrepute, shall be guilty of an offence under this Decree. Two journalists, Nduka Irabor and Tunde Thomson were incarcerated under this decree.

On 19 October, 1986, Dele Giwa, the founding editor of the Lagos-based weekly Newswatch was killed through a parcel bomb. In 1995, Kunle Ajibade of The News and Ben Charles Obi and George Mba of Tell, were convicted and sentenced to 25 years in jail for their alleged involvement in a phantom 1995 coup plot to overthrow Nigeria’s former dictator the late Gen. Sani Abacha.

Since then, there had been attempts to muscle the media by various governments through various actions and legislations. The recent was the Hate Speech bill sponsored by a law maker who is also deputy chief whip in the senate, Aliyu Abdullahi, to keep critics quiet.

The bill proposes that any person who uses, publishes, presents, produces, plays, provides, distributes and/or directs the performance of any material, written and or visual which is threatening, abusive or insulting or involves the use of threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour commits an offence if such person intends thereby to stir up ethnic hatred, or having regard to all the circumstances, ethnic hatred is likely to be stirred up against any person or person from such an ethnic group in Nigeria.

According to the bill, any person who commits this offence shall be liable to life imprisonment and where the act causes any loss of life, the person shall be punished with death by hanging. Weighty! The death penalty was later expunged from the bill.

Few months later, a credible intimation of the Hate Speech bill found its way into the 6th Amendment to National Broadcasting Code unveiled by Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information on August 4, 2020 in Lagos. This is as the bill delays in seeing the light of the day.

This time, the Code stipulates that those who fall foul of the provision of the broadcasting code on hate speech shall pay a fine of N5m, which was raised from N500,000. According to the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, this will compel media houses to scrutinise adverts and reports before publishing them. He said an offender who violates this law on three occasions will have the operating licence suspended.

While NBC and ministry of information are facing criticism over certain provisions of the Code, an outburst from the former Minister of Aviation, Fani Kayode against a reporter, Eyo Charles of Daily Trust was in the air. The entire media saw this, again as an attack against the media.

The Daily Trust reporter in Calabar had allegedly asked the former minister who was ‘bankrolling’ his trip around some states for inspection of certain projects in some states. Fani Kayode took offence against the word ‘bankrolling’ and started insulting the reporter. “I could see from your face before you got here, how stupid you are. Don’t ever talk to me like that. Who do you think you’re talking to. Bankroll who?

You think I am one of those ones you… from who, when, how? You have a small mind, very small mind. Don’t judge me by your own standards,” he said.

The insults on the journalist did not go down well with some well-meaning members of the society who had criticised the former minister for such outburst. Reacting to the incident, Chris Isiguzo, NUJ president, said the action of the ex-minister exposed him as an intolerant and unstable person who will not want his activities closely scrutinised by the media.

Isiguzo said it is disappointing that Fani-kayode, who holds leaders to account, is the same person attacking a journalist for doing his job. “It is instructive to remind the likes of Fani Kayode that it is the Constitutional right of Journalists to monitor and keep a check on people and institutions in power.

“By delving into politics and holding political office, Fani Kayode is very conversant with the watchdog role of the media. For him to have embarked on assessment of projects in some states, even though we are yet to be told under what platform, he is doing so, it is proper for the media to hold him to account for his actions and decisions.

“His reaction was totally unacceptable, dishonourable and reprehensible and we demand for retraction of his untoward, irritating and awkward utterances which negate simple decorum and civility.

“We are more shocked that the same Kayode who had in recent times, used his social media handles to call leaders to account is at the same time attacking a Journalist for a simple demand for him to unmask those behind his nationwide tour. He had already visited six states. This is indeed, terribly disappointing.” The former minister has since said to have apologised for his outburst.

Confrontations, vexations and intimidations against journalists for investigations and asking pertinent questions is a global phenomenon. Donald Trump of USA in May this year described a question on coronavirus as ‘nasty and snarky’. The CBS reporter had asked Trump why he laid so much emphasis on US being the first when it came to testing for coronavirus. She said, “Why is this global competition to you if every day Americans are still losing their lives and we’re still seeing more cases every day?”

Other world leaders have taken various actions to intimidate journalists and frustrate their jobs. This has led to kidnapping, warning of journalists. “I will report you to your publisher”, is often the threatening sentence. Fortunately, many publishers have backed their reporters as the case with Daily Trust.

To raise awareness about press freedom, the United Nations General Assembly declared May 3 every year to be observed as World Press Freedom Day or just World Press Day to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and marking the anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in Windhoek in 1991.

Enough is enough on intimidation and killing of journalists. It is high time, authorities respected journalists and understand that journalists’ role is that of society good. In a recent letter to Buhari, NUJ said “the role of the media in national development has become more elaborate and clearer more than ever before”.

The letter expatiated that the social duties of journalists in Nigeria include the advancement of the right to freedom of expression, access to information, conflict transformation and peace building. “These are prerequisites for open governance and development, the fight against corruption among others which ultimately serve the public interest. There can be no freedom of expression and freedom of the press where journalists work under precarious situations and are exposed to poverty, intimidation, harassment, killing and fear.