The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, has said the media is free to criticize the President but not to
denigrate him or his office, reports ITREALMS.
The Minister said this in Abuja on Thursday when he visited
the Peoples Daily Newspapers, in continuation of the advocacy for the National
Campaign Against Fake News, which was launched in July.
He said that in the rush to de-market the President and his government,
some mainstream media platforms have now resorted to the use of uncouth
language to denigrate the person and office of the President.
“In fact, fake news has taken another dimension. Now, it is
not uncommon for otherwise respectable media organisations to accuse the President
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria without backing up their accusation with an
iota of evidence. The latest of such occurred two days ago, when a newspaper
wrote an editorial in which it resorted to the use of uncouth language to
denigrate the President on the farmers-herders clashes and other issues.
''In their eagerness to de-market the President, they forget
that the President is the living symbol of the nation, and that by denigrating him,
they are denigrating the country, including themselves,'' Alhaji Mohammed said.
He said because of the impressive performance of the present
administration, the critics know they could not take on the government on
issues pertaining to performance, hence their resort to fake news.
“They are unrelenting, because fake news is the only weapon
they have against a performing Administration like ours. They know they cannot take
on us on the issue of infrastructure, economy, fight against corruption, agricultural
development, etc. They have therefore resorted to using fake news to de-market
our Administration. Thankfully, they are failing,” the Minister said.
He said even though the National Campaign Against Fake News
has not discouraged its purveyors, it has brought the phenomenon to the front burner
and equally heightened public discourse on the dangers of fake news which, he
said, has the capacity to instigate religious and ethnic crisis in the country.
Alhaji Mohammed, who described fake news as a global menace,
said even though different countries have been evolving ways to deal with the issue,
Nigeria’s approach is to appeal to the sense of responsibility of media
practitioners, bloggers and social media influencers.
He said the government will not toe the path of coercion or
censorship in the campaign against fake news, and that it believes in the capacity
of the media to self-regulate, so as not to self destruct.
In his remarks, the Chief Operating Officer of the Peoples
Daily Newspapers, Mr. Hameed Bello, described as very strategic the decision of
the Minister to rally the media in furtherance of the campaign against fake
news.
“This visit is very strategic and I think we should advise
the Honourable Minister to continue this kind of interface with the media because
it has the capacity to correct some misconceptions that people have on the
workings of government,” he said.
Uboshe Uboshe/GEE
ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!
Pix: The Minister of
Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed (third from left); Chief Operating
Officer of the People’s Daily Newspapers, Mr. Hameed Bello (extreme left);
Special Assistant to the President on
Information and Culture, Mr. Segun Adeyemi (extreme right), during a visit by
the Minister to the media house in Abuja on Thursday.
