Media, government, terrorists and the truth

There is a bond between the terrorist and the reporter. Globally, the reporter is viewed as the terrorist’s best friend. The reason is simple, though unwittingly, the reporter, in the course of carrying out his reportorial duties, serves the purpose of the terrorist.  The aim of the terrorist is to instill fear in the public. The terrorist goes all out to make the public believe that it can visit whatever catastrophe he so desires on the public without the authorities being able to do anything about it. This aim can only be achieved when everyone gets to know of the devastation the terrorist has brought on a segment of the society and the reporter comes in handy in helping the terrorist spread his frightening deeds through the reporter’s medium.

Hence, the reporter is rarely attacked by the terrorist. Even when other segments of the society come under heavy attack by the terrorist, the media is spared. So also do the guerrilla warrior and the insurgent fighter. They see the reporter as being forced to work in their favour and they go the extra mile to ensure his protection.

On the contrary, it is the enemy of the terrorist and the insurgent, that is a repressive government, which sees the reporter as a threat and tries to eliminate him. This happened in Syria on February 22, 2012, when Marie Colvin, who was writing for The Sunday Times of London, and a French photographer, Rémi Ochlik, were killed when their makeshift media centre was bombed in an attack sponsored by the state. The attack was sequel to the activities of local journalists and foreign correspondents which had infuriated the authorities and foiled the government’s efforts to control the coverage of the unrest in the country.

The same thing happened in Bangladesh. The same also happened in Charles Taylor’s Liberia when two journalists were killed by the state rather than the rebels. Tayo Awotusin, a Champion Newspaper reporter and Krees Imodibe of The Guardian were arrested, tortured and killed on the order of Taylor because they were from Nigeria, the country that was sponsoring the activities of the ECOMOG which was fighting against Taylor’s continued reign of terror in the land.

The reporter was not the target of NADECO and other freedom fighting groups when Nigeria was under the jackboot. While the freedom fighters saw the reporter as a friend because their activities were given good mention in the media, the Sani Abacha government saw the reporter as a threat. It was this that resulted in the shelling of Bagauda Kaltho of The News magazine in a hotel room by agents of the state. It also led to the gruesome killing of Chinedu Offoaro of The Guardian on May 1, 1996, among a host of others.

So, until lately, the Nigerian reporter had not been hunted by those hunted by the state. The first sign that the reporter had become an endangered species to the terrorist was when Zakariya Isa, a newscaster and Hausa translator with the Nigerian Television Authority in Maiduguri was killed in October 2011 by Boko Haram on the ground that he was spying on the group. The group claimed that the deceased had earlier been warned to desist from the act and when warning failed to make him change, he was killed. Then earlier in the year when the group attacked the city of Kano, Channels Television’s reporter and cameraman, Enenche Akogwu, was caught in the crossfire.

However, in 2012, Boko Haram violated the sacredness of the media and declared a full scale war on it when the terrorists bombed This Day offices in Abuja and Kaduna. The attack was akin to labeling the media as a conspirator against its purpose rather than a collaborator.

According to the group in an interview granted Premium Times, an online publication, it decided to attack This Day as a warning to other news organisations to always report the truth of the hostilities between the group and the government.

He said, “We have repeatedly cautioned reporters and media houses to be professional and objective in their reports. This is a war between us and the government of Nigeria; unfortunately the media have not been objective and fair in their report of the ongoing war, they chose to take side.”

Recently, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) instructed broadcast stations to stop giving space to activities of insurgents. The Commission, in a letter to the stations signed by Francisca Aiyetan, enjoined them to collaborate with the government in dealing with the security challenges by “Not giving details of either the security issues or victims of these security challenges so as not to jeopardise the efforts of the Nigerian soldiers and other security agents.”

The NBC’s demand is not different from the insurgents; they both seek protection of and projection by the media. Each wants favourable reports that would portray it as having an edge over the other. While the media has a duty to work in the interest of the society and guard against revealing state secret, its surveillance function puts on it the responsibility to inform the public about the country’s state of security so that citizens can be properly informed to take precaution and protect themselves against danger. If the media reports the devastation of the militants by the military, it is marked down by the militants. If it reports the attack of civilians by bandits, it courts the wrath of the government.

So, for reporting the truth, the media is hated by terrorists and hunted by government forces. This is due to the fact that everyone chooses the side from which they view the truth. But the truth has neither side nor shade; it is people that give it perspectives to suit their situations.

The first casualty of any war is the truth but the media is duty bound to report the truth. Accurate, impartial media reports conveyed from conflict zones serve a fundamental public interest. So, the government and terrorists (or bandits) need to realise that it is not in their interest for the media to be muzzled through any means. If the media is forced to abandon the truth, the society suffers because it sinks into darkness. Nothing liberates like the truth. So, the government has no business kicking against the truth like the terrorists, unless its foundation is falsehood.

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