|
MEDIA GETS HIGH MARKS IN MRA REPORTS
Lagos, Wednesday February 20, 2002:
As the curtains draws to a close on the Media Monitoring Project of the
Media Rights Agenda (MRA), the organizations has commended the media for
an excellent coverage of the controversy generated by the insertion into
the Electoral Bill presented to President Olusegun Obasanjo to assent and
the assassination of the nation’s Minister for Justice and Attorney
General late December 2001. The organization said the two issues were the
most widely reported events during the month. These findings were
contained in two separate reports recently released by the organization
under its Media Monitoring Project.
Titled Airwaves Monitor and Print Monitor, each devoted to
the monitoring exercise of the electronic and the print media during the
month of December 2001, the reports noted that the Electoral Act’s
provisions concerning local government tenure, the order of respective
elections and the prohibitive requirements for new party registration
raised a storm which the media adequately covered. The circumstance of
“smuggling” a clause into the bill, which was not considered by the
legislature, and the varied reactions to the development by Nigerians
across the country, also featured prominently in the media, according to
the report.
However, the reports inferred that the print media did a
better job of informing and educating its readers on the Electoral Act
controversy as its reports were generally balanced. The electronic media
failed because some stations deliberately downplayed the arguments
advanced by critics of the National Assembly, the Peoples’ Democracy Party
(PDP) and the Federal Government, and their collective role in the
debacle.
As for the print media, the recently published Print
Monitor for January 2002 said that the Press covered the wrangling over
the Act fairly well until its attention was diverted by the December 23
assassination of the Federal Attorney-General and Minister of Justice,
Chief Bola Ige.
The report disclosed that the media also did reasonably
well in its coverage of other issues such as President Obasanjo’s fencing
with Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and Professor Aluko; states government
budget proposals; by-elections; intra-party squabbles; Minister for State,
defense, Mrs. Dupe Adelaja’s faux pas over the Biafran Ex-soldier’s
matter; the donnybrook between Osun State Governor Akande and his deputy,
Iyiola Omisore; the continuing tension between Tivs and Jukuns, Birom and
Hausa, Sayawa Christians and Fulani in Bauchi and many other festering
crises.
The Print Monitor asserted that a good indicator of the
predominance of politics variables was 852 reports, which had a dimension
of 26,146 square inches. These figures, compared with 99 reports (2,963
square inches) for the two remaining variables of Human Rights and Public
Accountability, is huge. The report complained that had it not been for
the ordeal of Safiya Hussein, a Muslim woman resident in Sokoto who was
sentenced to death by a Sharia court, the human rights total of 27 reports
would have been fearless.
The report recorded 963 evaluated reports, which was
relatively low compared to the 2,562 it recorded in September and 1,601 in
November.
The reports mentioned some cases of biased news reporting
and particularly criticized those, which were clearly intentional in
contrast with cases where the publication made attempts to reach all sides
to an issue but didn’t succeed.
The reports also noted that the rate at which the media did
follow-ups of events, issues and crises had improved. However, the report
criticized what it called “continued widespread practice of quoting
anonymous sources as well as the publishing of speculative or sensational
reports, which lacked substance”. The reports also noted that some media
reports during the month were obviously sponsored and could not have been
the product of independent journalistic investigation.
Governments as the three tiers, their agencies and
functionaries constituted the main focus of the print media organs during
the month. Receiving less publicity were politician and political
activists of every stripe.
Also during the month, the majority of the reports in the
print media originated either from the Abuja Federal Capital Territory or
Lagos State.
The Airwaves Monitor for January recorded a total 3,071
reports for radio and 2,320 for television, which the report said were
quite low. The report said that the low tally was due to increased media
focus on non-project matters such as budgetary appropriations, banking
scams, the rapid developments in the telecommunications sector, civil
unrest, the winning by a Nigerian, Agbani Darego, of the Miss World beauty
contest, and the on-going cup of Nations football competition.
However, the publication noted that the percentage of
evaluated reports in comparism with the overall monitored reports remained
stable at 25.2% for both arms of the electronic media, i.e. radio and
television.
In the electronic media, Democracy Issue variable had 492
reports with a duration of 655 minutes, 28 seconds, while for Political
Issues, the total reports were 743 reports with a duration of 922 minutes,
24 seconds. There were 66 Human Rights report in duration of 101 minutes,
19 seconds, while Public Accountability reports were 69 in a duration of
84 minutes 20 seconds.
The report criticized the poor coverage of human rights and
accountability issues and described it as a worrisome lapse. However,
even with Democracy and Politics, the report accused the electronic media
of barely scratching the surface.
Noted the report: “Reports generally lacked depth and worse
still, portrayed government and other issues in a superficial and
uncritical manner. Concerning objectivity, the electronic media has a
spotty record with two or three exemplary stations in a sea of bias.”
The report deplored the attitude of station managers who
merely paid lip service to ethics in journalism. It also observed that
many of the technical lapses noticed in most of the stations such as poor
reception, sloppy scheduling, breaks in transmission, unexplained
cancellation of scheduled news programmes, production and newsroom
deficiencies, unprofessional news presentation and the neglect of
sound-bites and actualities, persisted during the month of December 2001.
The report also noted that perhaps the biggest failing of
the electronic media during the month was the excessive concentration on
government-related issues, as well as the generally uncritical nature of
the reportage.
While the MRA publication commended the media for
continuing to perform its useful role in the polity, it asserted that it
could do much better. Both reports recommended professional on the job
training for journalists and broadcasters in order to improve their
output.
Contact:
Banji Adeyanju
Project Manager
Tel/Fax: 01-4930831
E-mail; pubs@mediarigthtsagenda.org |
