FEMI AKINTUNDE-JOHNSON

ism is agenda-setting, and in the purview of conflict reporting, we often dovetail to profiling, stereotyping, and perhaps unconsciously knitting red herrings into the social fabrics of threatened communities. Let us take a window view of this intriguing article, “How News Media Talks About Terrorism: What The Evidence Shows” by Erin M. Kearns and Amarnath Amarasingam: “A study of 146 network and cable news programs between 2008 and 2012 found that 81 percent of terrorism suspects that were subjects of news reporting were Muslims, far greater than the percentage of terrorist attacks in the U.S. that were committed by Muslims during the same period. While some of these suspects may have been outside of the U.S., there still appears to be over-coverage of Muslims as terrorists. When we consider television news, the trend is the same: Muslims are over-represented as terrorists.”

Yet, the media is still the best hope of withering the influence and perfidy of terrorism. Governments of West Africa, particularly, must find the capacity and intelligence to accommodate and deepen relationships with the region’s media, even as they battle to reclaim the soul of the region from terrorist groups, extremists and insurrectionists. The advice of the France-based Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 2005 is still cogent and pragmatic: “Modern terrorism is media terrorism. The media are attracted by extreme terrorist acts not only because it is their duty to report on any major event but also because the dramatic and spectacular aspect of terrorism fascinates the general public. Today’s terrorists exploit this and act in a way which will attract maximum attention around the world.

“Terrorism should not affect the importance of freedom of expression and information in the media as one of the essential foundations of democratic society. This freedom carries with it the right of the public to be informed on matters of public concern, including terrorist acts and threats, as well as the response by the state and international organisations to them.

“The fight against terrorism should not be used as an excuse by states to restrict the freedom of the press. As far as journalists are concerned, they should avoid playing into the hands of the terrorists by restricting the dissemination of graphic photos and over-sensational information.”

The Assembly also nudged the mass media with some penetrating admonishments which will form a part of our concluding statements.”