President Goodluck Jonathan has assured the international community that the menace of Boko Haram will soon be a thing of the past as security measures initiated by his administration are steadily cleaning up the entire country of all forms of terrorism.
But the group, on the same day, issued fresh assassination threat against the president, Senate President David Mark, former Borno State Governor Ali Modu Sherrif, and former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana. It also confirmed links with Al-Qaeda, describing them as “brothers” who offer them support in their bid to Islamise Nigeria.
But senior security officials were sceptical about the latest threats Thursday, telling THISDAY that some politicians “were at work” again. A security official said “it is wrong and unpatriotic” for the media to grant access to Boko Haram, allowing them to spread terror messages without questioning the rationale behind their action.
I concur, there is no justification for the media to grant an avowed terrorist group uncensored press release of any kind. It is never done anywhere, ever! This is very unethical and should be condemned and controlled with immediate effect by the NCC or whoever is a position to do so.
Maybe they should borrow wisdom from the International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security...In the panel The Media and Terrorism: Friends or Foes,
the panelists debated how terrorism should be reported, and whether journalists should feel bound by political or professional imperatives. While some argued that the journalists only obligation was towards the reader, others stressed that it was important to deny the terrorists the oxygen of publicity.
