MRA RELEASES ITS SECOND PRINT MONITORING REPORT: THUMBS-DOWN ON A CROSS SECTION OF THE PRINT MEDIA

Lagos – Sunday, March 14, 1999:  Political reporting on the transition programme by a cross section of the Nigerian print media fell below acceptable standard for the month of January, 1999.

According to the second print media monitoring report published by Media Rights Agenda (MRA), there were several instances of bias reporting in favour of some political parties and politicians by some print media organizations running against the ethical working standard of fairness, objectivity and impartiality.

In the 39-page report entitled Media Scorecard: Report of the Print Media Coverage of the Political Transition Programme, the body particularly singled out This Day newspapers as the worst offender in the area of biased reporting.

The report cited This Day reports in its issues of January 4 and 5, 1999, in which the newspaper endorsed some parties and politicians, and said it considered those as against the tenants of impartiality which should guide newspapers in their reports.

In the same vein, the report also noted that the New Nigerian newspaper in its language and use of words was positive in relation to PDP and the less so in relation to other parties.

Similarly, the report noted that The Punch newspaper, although it published more stories on PDP than it did on other politician parties, was less positive in reporting the party and its candidates.

Another case was cited of The Diet which not only gave PDP more than three times the focuses it gave AD and APP, but was always generous in superlatives while reporting on PDP and less so far the other parties.

The report noted that the government has not done anything to legally safeguard the print media from harassment and intimidation from political parties and politicians as well as enable them free access to news sources.

Although, like in the previous month, there was a general air of freedom in the print media-working environment during the period under review, the report also noted that the decision of the government to bring newspapers and magazines under the Value Added Tax is capable of restricting the ability of the media to perform optimally as well as the plans of government to make libel a criminal offence.

This according to the report is likely responsible for the inability of the press to probe the huge sources of funding that some parties and candidates were reported to have expended.

The report which was conducted on 10 national newspapers both public-owned and private-owned as well as four news features magazines covering the period between January 1 and 31, 1999, noted that media focus on the three political parties and politicians was very largely skewed in favour of PDP to the detriment of the other political parties and politicians.

The newspapers include The New Nigerian, Daily Times, The Guardian, This Day, National Concord, Vanguard, The Diet, Post Express, Champion and The Punch newspapers.

The four weekly news feature magazines, all privately owned, include TELL, The Source, Newswatch and The News.

Specifically, the report noted that on the part of the media, as it relates to how it acts to provide access to political parties and candidates to communicates to the public, investigations revealed that there were virtually no official policy by any of the print media monitored.

In most cases, it was strictly the reporters who used their discretion to determine what to report and what not to report.

However, this discretion was in the main aided by largesse obliged reporters by politicians.  Thus, unofficially, most of the news stories were sponsored.

For example, the report noted, it was not uncommon for politicians to foot the bills of reporters who attend their campaign activities.

The report also noted that newspapers and magazines reports on events by Government and INEC officials were on the low side.

Except for The Guardian, which gave INEC 44 mentions, the highest after that is 25 by The Diet on Government.  Vis-à-vis the focus on the such others as Informed Commentaries, PDP etc.  This is not encouraging given that the activities of these two state holder groups are most important in ensuring a smooth transition process.

On the allocation of space to political parties, the report noted gross imbalances.  The highest beneficiary of the imbalance was PDP to the detriment of other parties.

Except for The Guardian which devoted 63 and 108 exclusive stories on AD and PDP, respectively, and 57 on PDP, all others newspapers focused more on PDP.

Some like Post Express, This Day, The Diet and Daily Times, gave thrice as much focus on PDP than they did on AD and APP.

Surprisingly, the same pattern was noticed in Daily Champion whose proprietor, Chief Iwanyanwu, is a Chieftain of APP.

From investigation, PDP, as a party and its candidates spent the most money on campaign both directly i.e. on advertisement, and as well as unofficially on reporters.

For example, in the total of 245 pages of advertisement in all the newspapers monitored, PDP as a party and its candidates placed 158 pages, APP, 63; AD, 23 and; AD-APP Alliance, one.

Also, This Day got the highest number of adverts, 52, followed by The Punch, 47, and The Guardian 34.  On Informed Commentaries and Civic Education, the report noted that there was a general improvement in press focus on these two variable compared to what obtained in the previous month – December 1998.  The report made special mention of TELL magazine, which published 115 Informed Commentaries, far above all other magazines monitored and some daily newspapers.

However, some of the Informed Commentaries in both the newspapers and magazines were decidedly biased towards some parties politicians and lacking in maturity in language.

The report also noted that there was a total neglect by the print media to report on political events in rural areas.  In fact, the percentage report on Urban to Rural political activities, is 99.5 to 5.

The report recommended that the Government should rethink its VAT on newspapers and magazines policy and drop its reported plans to make libel a criminal offence.

It noted that it is not unlikely that the inability of the press to probe sources of funds was as a result of fear of prosecution caution by parties and politicians involved in those large funding reported in the media.

Generally, the report further noted, the absence of information legislation or other legal or institutional structures for accessing such expenses, has resulted, in the lack of transparency which attended such crucial aspect of the transition programme.

The report further recommended as follows:

●          The Governments should provide adequate protection for journalists and media workers against intimidation and attacks by thugs, supporters and members of political parties or candidates.  The government should also investigate all reported cases and prosecute those responsible.

●          The print media should improve significantly on their focus on Civic Education publications.  The Governments and INEC should give more attention to political enlightenment programmes both in the mass media and using informal traditional means especially in rural areas where newspapers do not circulate and illiteracy is high.  This is even more so important because of the nature of the elections into the national houses of assembly and presidency that lie ahead.

●          Newspaper, rather than increase their advert rates, as they have done, should reduce it to enable parties and politicians have more direct access to the electorate.

●          The press should divorce itself of the temptation to take such step as endorsing parties and/or candidates.

For further information, please contact:

Osaro Odemwingie

Publications Officer

Tel: 01-4930831

Fax: 01-4930831

E-mail: mra@rcl.nig.com

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