The Department of State Services (DSS) has urged the media to consider the peculiarity of Nigeria based on ethnic and religious diversities in news reportage. The Public Relations Officer of the DSS, Dr. Peter Afunanya said this at a one-day seminar on the Media and National Security organized by the DSS in partnership with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Council of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) for members of the DSS press corps. Afunanya presented a paper titled, “Fake News and National Security”, where he urged journalists to ignore fake news because it was designed and distributed with the intent of misleading people into believing falsehood.
He stated that in this era of social media, fake news cuts across all professions, ages, and statuses.
He said, “We believe that in discharging its responsibility, the media must also take into account, the peculiarity of the county in terms of ethnic and religious diversities.
“The media must be responsible users of the pen and agenda setting such that the agenda we set must be one that can promote unity, cohesion, and peaceful co-existence.
“When you use your pen to twist facts to suit your emotional and selfish interest and make people of different nationalities to fight each other, you are not achieving what the constitution has demanded of you.”
In his keynote address, Mr. Emmanuel Ogbeche, Chairman of FCT Council, NUJ said that the seminar’s theme was appropriate considering the current security situation in the country.
Ogbeche said the aim of national security was to ensure the protection of lives, dignity, rights, and property of citizens, also, that the purpose is to safeguard the just and equitable living conditions of the public.
He, therefore, encouraged journalists to utilize the power bestowed upon them in the constitution judiciously and for the interest of the populace, adding that objectivity is crucial during the discharge of media responsibility.
He called for a mutual understanding between security agencies and media practitioners.