The Nigerian government has on Monday written a petition against international news agency, Cable News Network, CNN for its biased and unfair investigative report on the Lekki shootings.
CNN International crew had investigated the events of the Lekki Toll Gate Plaza, where unarmed protesters gathered to demand an end to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or SARS, a police unit accused of extrajudicial killings and abuses.
The detailed reporting exposed the Nigerian Governments role in the killings of unarmed protesters, the story also revealed and examined bullet casings found at the scene and confirmed with current and former Nigerian military sources that the bullet casings match those used by the Nigerian army officers who shot at protesters. Two ballistics experts confirmed with CNN that the shape of the bullet casings indicate they used live rounds, which contradicts the army’s claim they fired blanks.
The Federal Government criticized the news agency and threatened to sanction the foreign media outlet, CNN, over its report on the alleged shooting of #EndSARS protesters by soldiers at the Lekki toll plaza.
However, in the petition was written by Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed to Jonathan Hawkins, VP (Communications) in CNN Centre Atlanta, Georgia; the Minister said that the report by the international news network fell short of journalistic standards and reinforced the disinformation going in around the issue.
The letter titled, ‘Re: How a bloody night of bullets quashed a young protest movement’ reads:
“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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