The Federal Government of Nigeria has written the US-based Cable News Network, CNN for its coverage of the #EndSARS protest in Lekki area of Lagos saying “CNN breached the most basic of the core principles of journalism – balance and fairness.”
The government is demanding “an immediate and exhaustive
investigation from CNN into its ‘investigative’ report on the Lekki Toll Gate
incident to determine, among others, its authenticity.”
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed wrote the
letter on behave of the government to Jonathan Hawkins, VP (Communications) in
CNN Centre Atlanta, Georgia.
The letter dated November 23 2020 entitled ‘Re: How a bloody
night of bullets quashed a young protest movement’ was said to have been
written on Monday.
The letter reads in part:
“Our attention has been drawn to an ‘investigation’ by CNN,
entitled ‘How a Bloody Night of Bullets Quashed a Young Protest Movement’ and
aired on 18 Nov. 2020, in which the international news organization said it had”
uncovered that Nigerian security forces opened fire on unarmed protesters” at
the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos, Nigeria, during the #EndSARS protest.
“We write to put on record that the report did not just fall
short of journalistic standards, it reinforces the disinformation that is going
around on the issue, it is blatantly irresponsible and it is a poor piece of
journalistic work by a reputable international news organization.
“In the first instance, the report did not live up to the
most basic of the core principles of journalism – balance and fairness.
According to the website www.ethics.journalists.org,” balance and fairness are
classic buzzwords of journalism ethics: In objective journalism, stories must
be balanced in the sense of attempting to present all sides of a story.
Fairness means that a journalist should strive for accuracy and truth in
reporting, and not slant a story so a reader draws the reporter’s desired
conclusion.”
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