From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
A security expert, Col. Abdulkadir Zubairu Ahmed (Rtd) has proffered some tips media practitioners can follow through reportage to down play illicit activities of terrorists and allied criminal elements to send them packing from the country.
Retired Col. Ahmed who once headed the Kaduna State Traffic Law Enforcement Authority ( KASTLEA) said glorifying criminal elements is against corporate responsibility every journalist owns the country for the promotion of national security.
Delivering a paper titled, “Insecurity and Responsible Journalism”, at a maiden workshop on insecurity organised by the Kaduna State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) on Thursday, the retired Military officer said every news headline has the capacity to cause stability or instability because, “there are two faces to a coin”.
According to Retired Col. Ahmed, “If we see ourselves as part of corporate entity of the country, we should be able to promote national security, unity and development irrespective of the media organisation we represent. You should be able to coin your story in such a way it becomes the end of that crisis, particularly conflicts. Any time you are bringing a conflict story, it should be able to terminate the conflict and promote how to cushion the effect of the conflict on the victims that lost their lives.
“When we talk about national security, we are talking about what concerns the nation. We talk about norms and culture and how to achieve them for economic development and peaceful coexistence. There must be national resources to meet this norms and culture. If norms and culture are not achieved, that is where we have what is called insecurity, the whole country will be completely unsecured through some vices and illicit activities such as banditry, kidnapping, incessant killings, and so many things will come up to cause insecurity.
“I don’t need to tell you what journalism is about, you know what is journalism. But I believe it is a process of gathering information to be passed to the general public either through newspaper, radio and television. However, in every coin, there are two faces to it. There is this type of journalism that you can write a story that will bring about stability and you can write a story that will bring about damages. For example, somebody came close to a building, probably a mosque, he is not in a familiar environment, he might not know it is a mosque, the person happened to be probably a Christian, may be from the South of the country, he may not know how to conduct himself and he was pressed up, and urinate against the Mosque where Muslims pray, and before you know it, he is being surrounded and confusion arose, causing insecurity. Now you as a journalist what is your responsibility here.
Now an incident had occured and you are to communicate to the general public, how you communicate this incident now matters. Before you know what is happening, the people around, probably Muslims will gather around the man that urinated where Muslims pray, and argument ensue, may be they started blowing and beating the offender, who is a Christian and before you know it, Christians will raise the alarm that they are killing their fellow Christian.
“There will be confusion and chaos. The situation aggravated and begins to bring insecurity to the area. In this case, as a journalist, you are expected to report the situation in such a way that it will not escalate or attract revenge in the next two or three months. The appropriate report is to say that the incident has been brought under control and investigation is ongoing without necessarily mentioning the names and titles involved.
“You must promote stability and bring about economic development. As part of stakeholders you must not contribute in escalating insecurity. For example, if bandits block Kaduna/Zaria road and the military went there and brought it under control, and probably in the cause of action 10 soldiers were killed, and bandits were also killed. Will you go and report that though the Zaria road was cleared, but 50 soldiers were Killed, and begin to add that what kind of soldiers do we have. That is not journalism. That is not corporate journalism.
“In corporate journalism you have to promote the country as your own corporate entity. The general public want to hear about how to use Kaduna/Zaria road peaceful to conduct their businesses. Why not simply report that the military were able to clear the bandits on Kaduna/Zaria road, though lives were lost, the road is now safe for use. This is how to promote true journalism. This is corporate journalism”.