₦airaland Forum

Kwanza:
Read the full letter by the Nigerian government below:

23 Nov. 2020

Mr. Jonathan Hawkins

VP, Communications

CNN Centre

Atlanta, Georgia

U.S,

RE: HOW A BLOODY NIGHT OF BULLETS QUASHED A YOUNG PROTEST MOVEMENT

Our attention has been drawn to an ‘investigation’ by CNN, entitled ‘How a Bloody Night of Bullets Quashed a Young Protest Movement’ and aired on 18 Nov. 2020, in which the international news organization said it had ”uncovered that Nigerian security forces opened fire on unarmed protesters” at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos, Nigeria, during the #EndSARS protest.

We write to put on record that the report did not just fall short of journalistic standards, it reinforces the disinformation that is going around on the issue, it is blatantly irresponsible and it is a poor piece of journalistic work by a reputable international news organization.

In the first instance, the report did not live up to the most basic of the core principles of journalism – balance and fairness. According to the website www.ethics.journalists.org, ”balance and fairness are classic buzzwords of journalism ethics: In objective journalism, stories must be balanced in the sense of attempting to present all sides of a story. Fairness means that a journalist should strive for accuracy and truth in reporting, and not slant a story so a reader draws the reporter’s desired conclusion.”

Rushing to air such a momentous story without presenting the government’s side is inexcusable and indefensible. CNN said it contacted over 100 protesters and family members, but did not speak to one official of Nigeria’s federal government. While CNN said there was no response from the army and that officials of Lagos State would not speak in view of the Judicial Panel that is investigating the matter, it did not say what effort it made to speak with any official of the federal government.

The truth is that CNN did not even attempt to reach the federal government. Nima Elbagir, who presented the report and most probably led the investigation, is conversant with the Minister of Information and Culture, who is also the Spokesman for the Federal Government of Nigeria, yet did not say that she even tried to reach the Minister. It is therefore strange, to say the least, that she would rush to air such an important ‘investigation’ report without getting the government’s side. In other words, Nima, and by extension CNN, breached the most basic of the core principles of journalism – balance and fairness.

Another serious breach by CNN, in its ‘investigation’, is that the network relied heavily on unverified footages it harvested from social media.

CNN was not present at the Lekki Toll Gate on the night of the incident. Neither its reporter nor cameraman was there, but it relied on eyewitnesses. Well, this is fraught with danger. While experts say eyewitness testimony is a potent form of evidence, it is also subject to unconscious memory distortions and biases, Unlike CNN, a reporter from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Pidgin Service, Damilola Banjo, was at the Lekki Toll Gate on the night in question, and was quoted as saying soldiers shot sporadically into the air and not at the protesters – a direct contradiction of the position taken by CNN who relied on second and third-hand information.

In airing its ‘investigative’ report, CNN conveniently forgot that on Oct. 23rd 2020, it emphatically tweeted, from its verified twitter handle, that the military killed 38 people when it opened fire on

peaceful protesters on Tuesday, Oct. 20th 2020. Almost a month later, the same CNN – after a supposedly exhaustive investigation – is now reporting only one death from what the world was made to believe was a massacre. Is CNN not embarrassed by this sharp climbdown? Has CNN owned up to this and apologized for its faux paz?

It is also interesting that while CNN obtained footage showing when the vehicles carrying soldiers left their barracks and arrived at the Lekki Toll Gate, it could not obtain any footage showing the bodies of those supposedly killed in the ‘massacre’. After all, forensic ballistic experts will most likely testify that firing military grade weapons into a crowd will not leave anyone needing a microscope to look for blood or bodies at the scene.

CNN has said it stands by its story, and that ”our reporting was carefully and meticulously researched”, This is baffling, considering that the story lacks fairness and balance, as we have pointed out, and that the organization relied heavily on manipulated social media videos. This resort to an escapist cliche seems more like a face-saving measure by an otherwise respectable news network caught in the blinding glare of ‘fake news and disinformation’ headlamps. Or how else does one explain the arrogant defence of an international news network that would not even respect the most basic principle of journalism?

One of CNN’s star eyewitnesses in its ‘investigative’ reporting is DJ Switch. Unknown to CNN, DJ Switch’s story on the Lekki Toll Gate shooting has changed several times. From claiming she counted 78 bodies of protesters who were supposedly killed by soldiers on the night of the Lekki Toll Gate incident, she has twice, at least, changed the casualty figure from 78 to 15 and then to 7, without a shred of evidence. CNN cannot pretend not to know that for anyone to act as a witness, his or her credibility must be unimpeachable. DJ Switch’s credibility does not meet that threshold.


In one of social media videos of DJ Switch that was used by CNN (see attached link 1), the lady (DJ Switch) claimed she and some unnamed persons carried dead bodies and dropped them at the feet of the soldiers. She also claimed she spoke to their Commander before the soldiers threw the bodies into the vans. Curiously, for someone who was streaming live on Instagram during the Lekki Toll Gate incident, there was not a single video or picture of the dead bodies. Not even Godson (Uyi), another CNN star witness whose video was also used by the network, or any of the hundreds of protesters, all armed with smart phones, at the scene recorded a video or shot a picture of dead bodies being carried away by soldiers.

Talking of Godson, despite claiming to have analyzed hours of footage, it is curious that CNN conveniently left out key parts of Godson’s 57-minute, 5-second video (see attached link 2). For example, 13 minutes, 40 seconds into the video, there were voices, in street lingo, in the background telling Godson that the gunshots were not from the soldiers (na boys dey shoot, that na local gun sound….it’s boys, meaning touts and hoodlums, who are shooting.

That’s local gun). Some 20 minutes,14 seconds into the video, Godson confirmed that the boys had brought out their guns and were shooting (local okah, he called it). Some 23 minutes, 14 seconds into the video, Godson said ‘wait, all these boys dey shoot’ (meaning gunshots rang out from the touts/hoodlums). CNN, in its rush to nail soldiers and tell a ‘radically different story’, conveniently left out these parts of the Godson video, which could have shown that armed hoodlums invaded the Lekki Toll Gate that night, and could have hit any of the protesters as they shot sporadically. This is clearly a ploy by the CNN reporter/presenter to manipulate viewers of its ‘investigative’ report and force them to draw the reporter’s desired conclusion! Another video showing an armed protester at the Lekki Toll Gate (see attached link 3) was apparently not among the footage reviewed by CNN!

It is shocking that all through its ‘investigation’, CNN did not for once mention the fact that six soldiers and 37 policemen were killed during the #EndSARS crisis, which also left 196 policemen injured, not to talk of the monumental destruction of government and private properties across the country. Instead, the network is fixated on the massacre that never happened. Are security agents not human beings too? Are they not entitled to the protection of their human rights?

For the record, this is not the first time that CNN has carried an inaccurate or hoax story about Nigeria. In February 2007, Nigeria accused CNN of staging one of its reports from the country’s Niger Delta region, showing gunmen holding 24 Filipinos hostage. Of course, CNN and its then Africa Correspondent Jeff Koinange flatly denied the charge, saying the network did not pay for any part of the report. Later, in an email reportedly sent to a friend, Mr. Koinange was quoted as saying: “Of course we had to pay certain people to get the story… You do not get such a story without bribing.” So much for denials!

As a form of remediation, Nigeria’s Federal Government demands an immediate and exhaustive investigation from CNN into its ‘investigative’ report on the Lekki Toll Gate incident to determine, among others, its authenticity, whether or not it met the basic standards of journalism and also the selective use of unverified social media videos to manipulate public opinion. While it is up to CNN to accede or not, please note that the Federal Government reserves the right to take any action within its laws to prevent CNN from aggravating the #EndSARS crisis with unprofessional, irresponsible, one-sided, inciting and sensational reporting that is capable of pitching Nigerians against themselves and setting the country on fire.

Lai Mohammed

Hon. Minister

9jayes:
May Allah grant her Janat fridaos

GidiCars:
He wasn't involved in the development of the vaccines, just the trials. During the trial process, thousands of people get involved across different regions. Get the difference. Most people can get involved in the trials, even those who the vaccines were tested on are part of the trials.

Location is verified.

This was filmed less than 500m away from Police HQ in Abuja.

Men seen carrying melee weapons mounting a vehicle on Yakubu Gowon Crescent amid #EndSARS #AbujaProtests today.

Shot at: 9.0519998,7.5109454. See Street View: https://t.co/DLeVm865fi pic.twitter.com/ppUMN92O9H

— Bertram Hill (@bertram_hill1) October 19, 2020

So there a man in a black prado jeep wearing a black suit who is mobilising thugs to attack #EndSARS protesters & destroy property.

This video shows him giving them directions on what to do. pic.twitter.com/Wl9qppUPJV

— Ilemona (@I_Am_Ilemona) October 20, 2020

These thugs are been sponsored by the government. imagine using FG SUVs to patrol hoodlums in Abuja.#EndSARS #EndBadGoveranceInNigeria #ENDBADGOVERNANCE pic.twitter.com/no0OuBVJlp

— Adaozuruigbo (@rosemaryfelix81) October 20, 2020

maynia:
Just show me one prove that it is protesters

GidiCars:
I've always known a large number of nairaland users are retarded. If you've been following the news, you should know the major people who developed the vaccines and this guy ain't even one of them. He's probably a spectator in the field and offering his suggestions and stuff as someone in the field.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/10/europe/biontech-pfizer-vaccine-team-couple-intl/index.html

SenecaTheYonger:
Can teh Buhari-led admin sue the united states for stealing most of our big brains?

maynia:
Are these protesters?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhl994ZKwfI

maynia:
How did you know it was protesters?
Show us proof?

Gabriel004:
Says a dirty pig Fulani slave that never knew anything about development.

You think everyone is as stupid as your family members licking lifeless fool you called president.

Mumu.

sammy329:


Peaceful??

Like those protests in Edo abi

Or the protest in Ibadan, that the so called peaceful protesters killed and burnt a policeman publicly, then started eating his flesh.

Newman20:
I don't want to sound like a Buharist but it was very bad for youths to destroy public properties.

I supported them once but I've now realized the error of My ways.

If youths want to destroy properties they should do so in the North, where everything is useless.


God bless southern Nigeria republic.

If you are this stupid and those who liked your comment are also super stupid I wonder how you manage to type that with your phone.


I think burning your father's house and your house if your probably have will restore your brain.

Cashsteady:
Have u heard of Nairobi? In 50 yrs to come Lagos can never catch up with Nairobi

Psylas2:
China is more developed than the US.

RuudVanNisteroy:
Which indices do we rank higher than them in:
good governance
portable water
electricity
healthcare
road network
cleanliness
education
security

Gabriel004:
Bleep your population. Is Nigeria bigger and populated than USA, India, and China. Why is it not develop like those ones

okeyglm:
don't tell me u r joking. China can never be ahead of USA in terms of development

November1857:
Tagging Innocent protesters killed by the military Hoodlums and cultist is unacceptable !

Benbellamor:
Then allow their relative to access the register and who signed for their deposit at the morgue and possible autopsy instead of forcing your opinions on them,
Heart less people I have never seen a desperate people like this taken over all institutions including health and judiciary

Unrated900:
Ok thanks mugu

Unrated900:
You must be a dumb idiot,and a tribalistic miscreant guy

Yenefer:
So he also sponsored terrorist and he wanted to become president. Hmm! Probably One of the big Yahoo masters trying to justify his minions behaviors

Coldie:
Sorry for the insult I have u earlier I was just pissed over the situation.

I wish u d best

Coldie:
The guy put a specific phone number with a specific station, how is that "trying to ropein everysars"?

Christistruth00:
Channels TV Reporters were there throughout and said exactly the same thing soldier's only shot into the Air.

Pierocash:
non of anybody's business, you can sleep with your position, that is your business. But don't try to derails factual public opinion with your fanatism

Coldie:
All those people are evil. Don't answer him.

We all know how Lagos is, in Lagos 8pm is still early and people are willing and ready to buy off things at awoof price the mans competitors would happily buy off his goods at a cheap price and add it to their business.

Friend22 I pray u become a victim of this one day so u would know what Nigeria really feels like to some people

Pierocash:
you need brain surgery. Who is talking about massacre or no massacre. Innocent people were shot at,and that is what reasonable people are condemning. But instead, you and your befellow street urchins are hiding under "no massacre".

What was the intention for shooting at them in the first? Ewu

Unrated900:
It is well brother let’s emrabce peace together.
@friend22,change your ways
Happy weekend

Pierocash:
you need brain surgery. Who is talking about massacre or no massacre. Innocent people were shot at,and that is what reasonable people are condemning. But instead, you and your befellow street urchins are hiding under "no massacre".

What was the intention for shooting at them in the first? Ewu

Cherez:
Is this rubbish you're doing here a topic?
Even coming as Friend22?