Lai Mohammed: CNN Is In Our Trouble

By GWG Staff

The Federal Government on Friday reiterated its pledge to deal with the Cable News Network, CNN for its use of unverified social media videos in its reports on the Lekki Tollgate incident.

The minister of information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed who made the vow said the news network had shown itself irresponsible in purveying what he described as fake news and going ahead to defend same.

He spoke at a session stakeholders’ meeting of the Broadcasting Organizations of Nigeria (BON) in Abuja.

The minister observed that CNN’s “use of unverified videos and the non-adherence to the basic tenets of journalism have combined to land the international broadcaster, CNN, in trouble.”

He said: “It is baffling that an organization like CNN will rely on unauthenticated videos to carry out an investigation

“More worrisome is that an international broadcaster like CNN will switch casualty figures so casually without a credible source.

“This is why we have written a letter to CNN asking it to use its own internal mechanism to probe its investigation.

“We have received an acknowledgement of our letter, saying the letter has been referred to CNN’s Editorial Team.

“We await the outcome of their probe, but that’s without prejudice to whatever we may decide to do as a government.

“We will not sit by and allow any news organization, local or foreign, to set Nigeria on fire with irresponsible and unprofessional reporting. “CNN did not have a reporter or cameraman at the Lekki Toll Gate on the night in question, yet it emphatically reported a hoax story. Conversely, the BBC that had a reporter and an editor on ground reported that soldiers shot into the air, not at protesters. I will rather believe the person on the ground than the one who is thousands of kilometres away.

“Since we sent our letter, CNN has been grasping at straws in desperation, to justify its inaccurate and unbalanced investigation. But in the process, it is sinking more and more into professional infamy.

“Yesterday, Nov. 26th that is, in the clearest indication yet of the its confusion over the Lekki Toll Gate incident, CNN tried to clarify its tweet of Oct. 23rd by saying it never attributed the death toll of 38 to Amnesty International and that the tweet also did not make it clear that the death toll was for protests across the country.

“Commentators on the tweet tried to redirect CNN to the issue: which is its tweet of Oct. 23rd in which it said ”At least 38 people were killed in Nigeria on Tuesday (Oct. 20th) when the military opened fire on peaceful protesters.”

“This is very unambiguous and CNN is exhibiting panic by seeking to clarify its tweet some 35 days later! Instead of engaging in such panic, CNN should come clean by admitting that it goofed badly on the Lekki Toll Gate incident.

“But the big lesson to draw from CNN’s faux pas is that it magnifies the failure or inadequacy of our own broadcast organizations.

“In the wake of our spat with CNN, people are asking: Why didn’t our own broadcast stations take the lead in reporting the incident at Lekki?

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