Falana Blast Nigerian Media Says They Are Biased in Election Coverage.

Falana delivering his Lecture

“The ethical and moral objectives of the media anywhere in the world is to present balance and fair reporting to the people so they can be in a position to reach a conclusion, but in a mere colonial capitalist environment where the media are exclusively or largely owned by those who have accumulated wealth through questionable means, you hardly can get serious reporting.” This is the submission of Barrister Femi Falana on how the Nigerian media is biased in its coverage of the upcoming elections at the first Annual Public Lecture Series of the School of Communication and Liberal Studies (SC&LS) of the Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) Ikorodu, tagged 2015 Election; Legal and Ethical Issues in Media Reporting.

Falana said that only the media of all professional bodies in Nigeria has been granted a special dispensation, under section 22 of the constitution to uphold the fundamental objectives entrenched in chapter 2 of the constitution and to uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people; and only the press is giving that enormous responsibility. But since the commencement of the campaign for the 2015 general elections, politicians has been seeking the support of the electorate through the media by way of paid adverts or sponsors which has seen some of the political parties engaged in libellous or defamatory publications, with the help of the media. He cited how a media house which got burnt was getting pledges and donations from politicians which in turn affect the objectivity of news reportage by that newspaper.    

He raised the issue of how the media is not conforming with the provisions of the Electoral Act that no electoral advert should be carried out 90 days to the election and 24 hours before the election proper but many of the newspaper is guilty of this criminal offence. Also the Nigerian media is also guilty in allotting equal airtime to all political parties and candidates unlike what is obtainable that only the same faces of the APC and PDP which is widely paraded in the media, and that according to him is a criminal offence on the part of every media house. 

from Left the Rector and Barr Femi Falana at the  SC&LS 1st annual public lecture

He also noted how the incumbent at both federal and state levels are using state resources to prosecute their campaign and also acquire radio and television stations to praise the government in power to high heavens to the disadvantage of the opposition, which if the opposition pursue in court could lead to the closure of such media houses or being fined heavily.

He describe some of the advertisement published by some political parties as scandalous, pointing to the recent immoral advertorial of the death wish for the APC presidential candidate, General Muhammed Buhari by the governor of Ekiti State and published by the Punch Newspaper which he states violates the law and offended the moral sensibility of Nigerians.

Dean School of communications and Liberal Studies, Barr Alake

In other to ensure that journalist carry out their duties very well, Falana enjoined journalist and media practitioners to explore the Freedom of Information Act law to request information from any government parastatal which they have a duty to provide within seven days to give such information.    

As the elections draw nearer he charged Nigerians not to be fooled but to ask questions from the politicians especially those in the National Assembly about their emoluments which is shrouded in secrecy, according to Falana Nigerian legislators are the highest paid in the world, he said a senator earns 1.8 million dollars while a house of representative member earns 1.6 million dollars.

He implored the media not to be used as a tool to breach or violate the law while making money. The constitution has charged the mass media with the responsibility of mobilising and sensitizing Nigerians to choose for themselves good and credible leaders while also observing and putting in cognisance the legal and ethical issues involve in media reporting in Nigeria.

cross section of participants at the Annual lecture

On the essence of the public lecture, the Dean of the Schoool, Barrister Alake says “our democracy is evolving we must pass the process somewhere and as we have expose the legal and ethical issues in media reporting now at least we will learn something from here then we will build upon it in subsequent elections and that is just the essence. Rome was not built in a day so we must start and people will realise that probably in 2019 that there are certain things that they did badly that may be corrected and all the media houses will take a clue from there. Of course as a new school that came in to being in July 2014, we felt that being a school of communication we need to do something to herald the coming of the school into being. This is not going to be the first and the final public lecture, we want to be doing this every year then we will pick a topical issue, current and contemporary issues at that point in time for discussion.

He also has this to say on the benefits of the Annual public lecture to media practitioners and especially students of mass communication, “they are going to be practising journalist later, whatever they have learn now they know and should know that there are some ethical and legal issues involve as media practitioners. And it is hopeful that whatever they have learn they will imbibe it, inculcate it, imitate it and put into practise by the time they are getting job and working in any of this media organisation. That even if their organisation is telling them to do certain things and they know the legal framework and the moral issues involve, they will be constraint. In other words they should put public interest above whatever interest their media houses have after all the media houses are serving the public to give a balanced and objective coverage to every political party involve, so if PDP is giving a coverage then APC and other parties should equally be giving adequate coverage to allow the people to have a balance and objective reportage.