‘Media organisations, especially online platforms, guilty of misleading reports should not only be honourable enough to admit that they are wrong and correct their wrong reports, but they should also take the necessary steps required to prevent future occurrences.’
Two major media reports recently on government or public policy which should elicit detailed interrogation from the press have rather left the public confused than be educated and guided. The first is on the proposed creation of an additional 31 states in the country and the second: introduction of a 12-year basic education model.
Did the House of Representatives recommend the creation of 31 states or not? Has the federal government adopted a new basic education model?
Instead of reporting the 31 states as requests from agitators, some media platforms gave the impression that the House has proposed the creation of the states.
On the proposal of a 12-year basic education model by the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa which has not been approved by the National Council on Education (NCE), it was reported that the existing 9-3-4 system has been scrapped.
Expectedly, the conflicting reports have generated outrage and various discussions on the assumption that the false reports are true.
Concerned about the misleading reports on the creation of states, a Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajaiyi, clarified that the House only made public the number of proposals for creating more states it has received from various interest and lobby groups.
“Journalists should do well to report issues correctly. To think that many reporters covering the National Assembly have covered the parliament for over 20 years, one would expect that journalists covering the NASS should have mastered parliamentary procedures,” Ajayi stated in his social media posts.
The Ministry of Education, in a statement issued by the Director of Press at the Federal Ministry of Education, Folasade Boriowo, also stated that reports suggesting the immediate scrapping of Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) and Senior Secondary Schools (SSS) are untrue.
Some other senior journalists, including Mr Richard Akinola, have consistently called for enhanced copy editing of reports like in the past for the media to retain the trust of its audience as a source of accurate information.
Apart from the two recent reports, there have also been complaints about reporting of court judgments with various media platforms giving them various contradictory interpretations.
It’s worrisome that some legacy platforms are also guilty of inaccurate accounts of proceedings of legislative proceedings and other major pronouncements which could have been prevented if necessary editorial control mechanisms had been applied by editors who should know better.
Though a report of a committee of the legislature does not become its decision until it is adopted in the plenary session, some media platforms have repeatedly reported it as such.
Media organisations, especially online platforms, guilty of misleading reports should not only be honourable enough to admit that they are wrong and correct their wrong reports, they should take the necessary steps required to prevent future occurrences.
The present practice where many websites are run by only the publishers and they only copy unverified reports for publication is not good for the image of the industry.
Both reporters and Copy editors should be more knowledgeable about what they are covering and editing for the media to remain the reliable source of correct and reliable information.
Some beats like the legislature, judiciary and others require knowledge of their workings for them to be properly reported.
We suggest that media organisations and groups should organise regular training to address the worrisome trend of misleading reports that question their integrity.
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Editorial Board members: Abdulwarees Solanke (Chairman), Mrs Goodness Chibunna, Dr Qasim Akinreti, Dr Olayinka Oyegbile, Professor Oloruntola Sunday, Mr Lekan Otufodunrin.