The IGs kick against the media over Boko Haram

When the inspector General of Police ,Muhammed Abubakar identified media coverage of the activities of the Boko haram sect as motivational factor for the group to see themselves as relevant and therefore passionately appealed to them to henceforth stop giving them such publicity he did not know that he has shot himself on the foot with his own gun because just as the police has the right to fight criminals and criminalities the media also have the right to constitutionally report to the public. We are also of the opinion that security organizations should stop putting there frustrations on the media whenever they fail in there duties as the media as long we can recall has never reported anything concerning the menace of the sect that the police didn’t know. Most times what the media repor are informations from press briefings organized by either the Joint Task Force,The State Security Services or the police. Instead of velifying them they should rather work hand in hand with the media whose only gain is to expose Boko Haram for what they stand for which is terrorism. No where in the world has the media blanked out on a serious issue such as terrorism which has taken so many lives. Apart from just reporting incidence such as when a bomb explodes or an attack on buildings carried out by the sect the media has the job of educating the public on what is going on and what to do so as not to be safe. Security organizations are not to choose for the media what they should report and what they shouldn’t report. Even though National security sometimes come to play it should not be an excuse to shot up the media. In the past issues that has little or nothing to do with National Security have been swept under the carpet .We should therefore be careful when determining what constitute national security. Does reporting a bomb blast that killed so many people constitute National Security? Dose also reporting a press statement by the sect that carried out the attack a breach to National Security. Will it be in whose interest that the blast was not reported or the perpetrated not exposed. Shouldn’t Nigerians know why they are been killed in there own country and how many of them have already died or don’t you think the press would be failing in its duty if it did not bring these information to the public glare. We think the inspector general of police owes the media accolades and not condemnation .Already many journalists have died trying to do what the constitution mandated them to do. The war against terrorism is not between the media and security organizations. It is with the sect and every security organization should concentrate on how to win it We are in the era of free press and any attempt to muscle the media will be resisted with every constitutional means necessary. That was why the National Assembly Passed the freedom in information Act.This is not to say that the media should not exercise restraint why reporting matters bothering on National security. They should. However they should not in restraining themselves censor news which would have informed or educated the people because it is there right to know and be informed. We are therefore calling on all concerned to exercise some degree of restrain why bearing in mind the right of the citizenry to know.