manny4life:

I never said they need to source it from the govt, you're the one adding that. Ok... if you say so

My point still remains, if journalist wanna obtain information, go about it the right way. Don't go about it backdoor and then claim innocence "doing legitimate work" when someone comes knocking at your door.

And what is the right way in ur opinion if not from the govt that should know all. From ur argument, it seems as if anything except from the govt itself is backdoor. and by the way, what law stops journalists from securing their info from backdoors especially if such infos are true?

fistonme: Fidel nor Chime doesn't add anything to my life, but to me, Chime is more of national symbol of importance than Fidel is because by virtue of being a Nigerian.

Do you believe all humans are equal and should be treated as such. Maybe you are a proponent of the Animal farm premise- All animal are equal but some are more equal than others. You appear to be racially cum ethnocentrically personified. Perhaps you reside in the states or in diaspora, please do youself a favour dont complain of racial profiling if treated as such.

adconline:

You have failed to link the Journalist with any mention of Chime's death . There u go again typing without researching or reasoning. The onus is on you to substantiate your claim. Maybe you are one of the said thugs...

Journalists always protect their sources.. Some exception might apply in some national security and treasonable cases and THIS CASE does not fall under any of these.

emmatok: @MANNY4LIFE,

A lot things are accepted in journalism, like reporting unconfirmed new, getting info from anonymous sources.
What those guy did was wrong,
The state can sue if they are wronged.
But harassment is bad.

manny4life:

Right way meaning if the govt doesn't give you information, you can obtain it the legal way... Ok, legal experts, explain. I mean, if the average citizens is entitled by law to know information about their govt, then the state courts will side with the people under FREEDOM OF INFORMATION..

BTW, when I mean backdoor, I mean security leaks... nothing else.

manny4life:

Exactly!

I haven't said things aren't accepted or not, even anonymous sources included. No doubt. However, my point is, if you gonna align yourself through anonymous sources who are sworn by secrecy to keep state or nations secrets, when the heat is on, do you also wanna claim innocence?

Demdem:

I think the onus is on the government to charge any erring journalist to court if they are convinced and can prove that he got his info illegally and not bullying and harassing such citizens. Even if citizens behave irresponsible (in this case, not so), why should govt also degenerate into such in a democratic setting?

There is no security risk has regards chime's health. Please lets stop this. he is human afterall

Demdem:

When u say heat, do u mean illegalities to fight such journalists that goes about doing their legitimate legal duties?

manny4life:

You're right, I'll agree with you. It's for the govt to charge erring journalist, after all, like the FBI says, "PIRACY IS A VICTIMLESS CRIME", so is this is something the govt should handle through courts. However, how else can the govt get proof without confiscating his property?

Although in my view though, I do not see this as harassing, though I feel bad for him, nevertheless, it comes as part of the job. I feel bad for him though...

Demdem:

U just dont go to "innocent" homes and start seizing properties. there is a procedure for that. Was this followed?
U feel bad for him but u dont think he was harrassed, then why do u feel bad?

manny4life:

What's illegal?

The confiscation of property

Without any legal backing, yes it is illegal.

or the stopping or blocking of his car,

this isnt out of place however it was wrong for the agents not to have properly identified themselves when asked

or the entry into his house or vigil they kep in his place?

On what grounds? Any legal order? these goons didnt eben identify themselves properly

How do you mean "illegality" ?

When I speak of "heat", I mean the problems that follow suit. Some are arrested, some have their properties confiscated, some are barred, depending on the story, some even loose their license, some are even fired. Depending on how u look at it, that's how I define heat.

In this case, the heat melted on him was the illegal harassment which u felt sorry for earlier.

fistonme:

yes accepted as an "unconfirmed" report. If a neighbour reads it in the daily and he happens to be sitting with my dad at the time maybe discussing the state of the nation. I guess you already know what would be his reaction(a big laugh as opposed to when he is far of). The reason being that he has confirmed and know it is to the contrary. Same thing goes when a rational reader reads a story tagged "unconfirmed". It all boils down to the fact that-i am responsible for 'what i say' and not 'what you deduce from what i say'.

Without any legal backing, yes it is illegal.

this isnt out of place however it was wrong for the agents not to have properly identified themselves when asked

manny4life:


Perhaps, you're part of the classification committee who classifies security matters to know what's of national security or not. Bottom line, security information is still what it is. There was a reason why it's "classified" either confidential, secret or top secret. The ONLY ONE THING I KNOW is to have access to either compartment, you must have "need to know" basis. Whether national security or not, sensitive information is what it is.

Demdem: Foolish and incompetent SSS.
It would have been better to devote that time spent in the journalist's house to search for the marked notes given to facrook which they still havent seen till date.

manny4life:

Exactly!

I haven't said things aren't accepted or not, even anonymous sources included. No doubt. However, my point is, if you gonna align yourself through anonymous sources who are sworn by secrecy to keep state or nations secrets, when the heat is on, do you also wanna claim innocence?

manny4life:


You term him as innocent right? Bros, we've been through this before. Ok, YES, he's innocent.

Of cos he is innocent to the best of our knowledge pending any further explanation from the SSS. Before this incident, he is noted for the truth and after this incident he is still a free man still doing what he knows what to do best. he is not being charged for anything till date.

How do you know protocols weren't followed? Are you part of the SSS team to know if or not an order was signed?

Then the procedure itself has to be condemned by all like i have been stating. In a democratic setting, its such shouldnt be allowed.

I feel bad for him because he felt threatened by the men, not the perceived harassment he claims, at least I read in the story.

he was threatend but not harrassed if am to get u right. Honestly, that doesnt make sense to me.

getukudo:

You have come again with your mumu comments! How do you know they were SSS officials? Olodo!

adconline:

Challenging the veracity of my claim requires you to come up with a better verifiable claim, but u have failed to do so. Rebutting a claim with typical Naija response" it's a lie or I dont believe". Are u member of the classification committee? 1.Using Yar'dua's case as a precedent, journalists were not held hostage for publishing true facts. 2: Governor's health is not on exclusive list of FG and cannot be a classified Fed info or treasonable.3: There are libel laws in our book to protect Mr. Chime if the journalist has published damaging and untrue stories about him.
4. Chime should have done what Ajimobi did when some newspapers published that his wife had been detained by London Met. Police for money laundry.. He sued for N1 billion in damages.
5. Why can't you guys bring out the governor to come and speak to his people?

emmatok:

Their are laws and protocols protecting Journalist.

Chime issue is not special, if the state comes out with the truth all these won't happen.
But turning the heat on journalist is wrong.Why can't those guys raid PUNCH OFFICE it was punch that publish the news.

That is way most of our Journalist give their news to SAHARA REPORTERS.
Remember YARADUA regime.

manny4life:

Again, me I'm no expert on Nigerian law, so I'll stick to what I know. Neither you nor I know whether they showed him an judge order, or a search/seize warrant. We're just going by what he claimed. As for illegality, I guess it differs from country to country and case by case.

Look, to an extent i know how these guys work. the mere fact that they find it difficult to identify themselves properly suggests to me that they knew the law wasnt on their side. i have no reasons to doubt this journalist. his antecedents has been clean so far.


Technically, they're not obligated to show him their ID's. No agent will show you their ID card, but their enforcement badge. He claimed, at 11pm at night, he wants to see their ID, who does that.

technically u say ok the so called enforcement badge (if at all they have such) why didnt they brandish such when asked to identify themselves.

Again, neither you nor I know if they fully identified themselves as "State Security Service" with an badge...we're just going by what he said.

Again i re-instate that i have no reasons for now to doubt this journalist because his record so far is encouraging. If the SSS thinks otherwise, they should bring out a release to that effect but till then, will stick to his report which forms the basis of this thread.

adconline:
4. Chime should have done what Ajimobi did when some newspapers published that his wife had been detained by London Met. Police for money laundry.. He sued for N1 billion in damages.

Of cos he is innocent to the best of our knowledge pending any further explanation from the SSS. Before this incident, he is noted for the truth and after this incident he is still a free man still doing what he knows what to do best. he is not being charged for anything till date.

Then the procedure itself has to be condemned by all like i have been stating. In a democratic setting, its such shouldnt be allowed.

he was threatend but not harrassed if am to get u right. Honestly, that doesnt make sense to me.

manny4life:


Seriously dude, you're somewhat way off. Where you're getting all hyped about this, I have no idea.

Verifiable claim about what? That news did not carry that Chime dies in India, at night on a Saturday? Is that what you want me to verify? I'm lost to what you're talking about.

Who claimed journalist where held hostage from publishing true facts? When Yaradua died, was it not a known fact? When he was seriously ill, was it tightly protected or not? Did the media have so much access to information when he was ill compared to when he died?

Dude, please leave all this talk jor, me sef I'm confused.

As to the classification committee, you made a claim "on in exemptions - treasonable and something else". I replied, perhaps, you're part of a committee that classifies the nations secrets, so you want me to prove what you said wrong. If that's what you want me to do, then you will tell me first, DO YOU CURRENTLY HOLD A NATIONAL SECURITY CLEARANCE?

At least, I'm getting somewhere with Demdem, with you, I'm lost.

Look, to an extent i know how these guys work. the mere fact that they find it difficult to identify themselves properly suggests to me that they knew the law wasnt on their side. i have no reasons to doubt this journalist. his antecedents has been clean so far.

Again i re-instate that i have no reasons for now to doubt this journalist because his record so far is encouraging. If the SSS thinks otherwise, they should bring out a release to that effect but till then, will stick to his report which forms the basis of this thread.

manny4life:


Well, like they say - Innocent till proven guilty, right?

of cos so lets take this report has the absolute truth till a contrary report comes around preferably from the SSS itself


What shouldn't be allowed? An order for search and seizure? Hmm, if that's what you mean... Please take a look at our Amendments.

Search and seizure against those critical of govts positions without any basis (he never lied in his earlier report) shouldnt be encouraged and be condemned by all


Me sef was discombobulated when I wrote that. What I meant in the context was the meeting/and the acclaimed threat. There are types of threat and this wasn't harmful, at least we can see... It doesn't constitute harassment

Abegii, spare me with these arrangement of words. i admit, u are good with it but the fact remained that he was threatened by men of the security agents and that to me is harassment.

manny4life:


Exactly! You have no reason for doubt, which is absolutely fine... However, I'm off the opinion that if their mission there was vengeful or otherwise, his stories wouldn't surface. A prime example is the "do not make any call" incident, YET he did. One of many flaws in the story.

Doesnt that suggest to u that they themselves believes the law isnt with them in that house. That ordinarily should be an arrestable offence if truly their presence was backed by law. yet they did nothing. thats a red flag there.


There's nothing wrong sticking to your guns brother...I'm not giving any doubt nor full blown support to either, that's what makes us different.

am ok with this.

blocker: Why take this much trouble to block information if there is no foul play? Ask anybody in Enugu whether SUN Newspapers came to the vendors stand last friday. No wait don't ask before they seize the laptop wen I dey use type sef.

adconline:

Let me remind why we are having this debate in case someone is having Romneysia.. You supported Chime's security guys or thugs for holding a Punch journalist hostage and confiscating his working tools without any court order.