Fake News, Biased Reporting Threaten Nigeria’s Stability – ICPC Boss Tells Journalists
By Nafisat Bello
The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, has urged media professionals to be wary of the massive threat fake news and unprofessional reporting pose to Nigeria’s stability.
Owasanoye made the call on Monday in Abuja while declaring open a two-day workshop for reporters covering the Commission.
He said the journalists covering the ICPC and the entire media industry are also potential victims of how poor reporting by quacks threatens livelihoods.
“Fake news and biased reporting threaten all of us. They threaten stability, professional competencies and our livelihoods,” he said.
The Chairman said that the workshop would offer an opportunity for the Commission and the media to agree on how to communicate professionally with the risk of fake news constantly under consideration.
He urged the participants to use the opportunity to establish a relationship with ICPC and not just a relationship that demands the Commission to disclose which high-profile case it was investigating.
“Reporters should seek a relationship that will help discuss how to deal with the scourge of corruption and the attendant challenges and risks associated with that battle,” he noted.
He said that the workshop would also help to improve the capacity of the reporters so that their stories would not become asymmetrical or misleading, or even exaggerated either in favour of, or against, the Commission.
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The ICPC boss also revealed that since the first training workshop for journalists was held last year, there had been an improved standard of reportage.
He said that this could be further improved by more engagements and sharing of information and perspectives with stakeholders to close the existing gaps.
“The interaction will help close the gap and strengthen mutual symbiotic collaboration between the agency and the media,” he said.
He sought the support of the media to assist the agency achieve its mandate of fighting corruption without the fixation with only high profile arrests but also of preventive measures.
Speaking earlier in the same vein, the Director of Public Enlightenment and Education Department in the ICPC, Mohammed Ashiru Baba, said the media only focus on the arrest and prosecution of ‘big shots’ in the society, forgetting that it is rewarding to tackle corruption from the foundation.
He said that such practice denies preventive efforts the adequate publicity it deserves
“This one-sided outlook by the media is due to the erroneous belief by some media practitioners that the fight against corruption begins and ends with arrest and prosecution of the corrupt politically exposed persons,” he added.
Baba, therefore, highlighted some of the Commission’s efforts at enhancing corporate good governance through Anti-Corruption and Transparency Units (ACTUs) in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
“Others are ethics and integrity scorecards, corruption risk assessments, youth outreach and behavioural change strategies conducted by the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN),” he said while expressing regret that the media is silent about them.
He stated that 90 per cent of the Commission’s activities are preventive in nature which should elicit high-level media coverage.
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