Peddlers of fake news must not be spared, By Funke Cole
Gone are the days when you can publish and be damned. Not anymore.
This is putting the National Broadcasting Commission, National Press Council, Nigeria Communications Commission and the law enforcement agencies on notice not to spare any medium or individuals caught peddling rumours, fake news, misinformation, lies, falsehood, propaganda with the intent to deceive, stoke the embers of unity, etcetera.
The events of the past few weeks have made this call rather inevitable.
In case you missed this, here’s a recap of the events these past weeks.
Channels TV had last week conducted an interview in which its guest Dr. Yusuf Datti Baba Ahmed, the vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party made incendiary comments capable of causing a breach of public peace on a national television.
The NBC moved swiftly by slamming a N5m fine on the erring TV station.
Shortly after the NBC axed the Channels TV, Mr Bayo Onanuga, the Director of Media and Publicity at the APC Presidential Campaign Council, was made a subject of scorn by Richard Akinola II, in an article widely publicised where the former was accused of fighting free speech and practically ganging the press and all in an oblique reference to the fine against Channels TV. Well, as it turned out, Akinola II was also trying to gaslight Onanuga too, by accusing the latter wrongly. But that’s not the crux of this discourse.
What this article seeks to address is the penchant by some of the media houses both print, radio, television, online who use their platforms to propagate fake news, misinform the public, and generally cause disaffection.
One of those notorious for this is the Arise TV, whose propensity to sensationalise everything from fake news, rumours, etal, is really legendary. In fact, yours truly did penned an article some months ago under the caption, “Arise TV must rise above mediocrity”, where similar issues around falsehood, bad press in relation to the station’s operation. The station was fined by the NBC following the public outcry against their unprofessional conduct at the time. Unfortunately, Arise TV is yet to rise above mediocrity still.
Recall the ugly episode involving the Obidient dude who attempted to hijack the Ibom Airplane, Obiajulu Uja, last Friday, during a flight from Abuja to Lagos.
Unverified news sources would later link the felon to a certain Obiajulu, who is a presenter at the popular television magazine programme Your View on TVC station.
To make matters worse, Nairaland, Arise TV and a host of other social media platforms lapped it all up by using their respective mediums to further circulate and broadcast what has turned out to be a falsehood in every ramification as the identity of the TVC Obiajulu is not in anyway linked to the airplane hijacker!
The wrongly identified lady is Obiajulu Olabisi Ugboh.
Expectedly, the distraught lady who appeared on air this morning was emotionally drained and psychologically pained as she recalled the ugly outcome of that falsehood circulated about her on her family. She has promised to sue Arise TV and its co-travellers.
There are yet other ugly episodes of fake news, rumour mongering which continue to gain traction on the mainstream and social media to the detriment of the public sanity and peace.
In a country where division is rife ethnic profiling, social dislocation and myriads of issues are yet unresolved, the twin evils of propaganda, fake news and other such tendencies should not be allowed to fester anymore than they should be encouraged because the consequences of the outcomes can be very dire.
It therefore bears stating here for emphasis that the authorities concerned must gird up their loins and act fast before the enemies of the state plunge us into a never-ending war similar to the Rwanda episode.
-Cole is a Lagos-based freelance journalist
