A two-day military/media conference held in Abuja, recommends media and military partnership to mend the nation’s security situation

By Emeka Ejere

As part of recommendations in a communiqué issued at the end of a two-day military/media conference held in Abuja, media professionals and the military have been urged to share the responsibility of protecting national security as it supersedes all interests.

Themed “Enhancing Media-Military relationship for effective fight against terrorism and insurgency in Nigeria’’, the conference was organised by the Nigerian Army in collaboration with the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE: Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ; the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, NIPR; Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, GOCOP, and Guild of Professional Bloggers of Nigeria, GPBN.

It also recommended that the military should appreciate and support journalists to fulfill their constitutional mandates of informing the citizenry as well as respect journalists’ professionalism.

The 17-point communiqué added that the military must respect the right of journalists to protect the confidentiality of their sources of information.

“Media professionals need to improve public understanding that the Nigerian State is at war and that both the Nigerian military and media are focused on playing their crucial roles to win the war against terrorism.

“The war against terrorism, insurgency and violent crimes should always be appropriately framed as a war between Nigeria and the criminals which affects every fabric of our society and not a detached war between the Nigerian Army and Boko Haram terrorists group.’’

The communiqué also recommended strategic handling of reports of activities of terrorists and insurgents to decrease fear in the populace and weaken the recruitment and financing base of the criminals.

It said in order to close any perceived information gap and mitigate the spread of fake news, stakeholders should crosscheck, fact-check and evaluate information received before publishing to avoid disinformation and misinformation.

The document, therefore, called on the Nigerian Army to provide timely and accurate information in accessible locations.

It said the locations should include online sites for cross referencing of information on the army’s activities related to the war by the media and other interested stakeholders.

It noted that social media influencers and citizen journalists were strategic partners hence the military should embed them in their routine process of intelligence gathering and information sharing.

“There is the need, therefore, for media professionals to always ensure they do not allow grudges against civil authorities to translate to bad press for the military.’’

The conference observed that the fight against terrorism and insurgency was relatively new to both the military and media.

It said, this had resulted in occasional strains in the relationship between the two in the course of carrying out their duties.

It further observed: “The Media and military have been collaborating in the fight against terrorism and insurgency, however, there is no consensus on the challenges and expectations placed on each other.

“The perceived posture of the military as the sole defender of national security often isolates the media and the attitude of some of the media, breeds mutual suspicion and weakens the needed collaboration between the military and the Nigerian media.”

Earlier in his lecture, Mehmet Kilic, the president, Journalists and Writers Foundation, New York, noted that the war against terrorism and insurgency needs to be viewed and reported as war between Nigeria and terrorists and criminals, not Nigerian Army versus the terrorists.

Kilic, who spoke on the topic, “Towards a Better Media/Army Relations”, said the media must be insatiable in finding creative ways of gathering, processing and disseminating accurate and meaningful information in fulfilling the need for national security.

He observed that media reportage of issues has an impact on the morale of the troops fighting to maintain the territorial integrity of the country and advised the media to “avoid being used as a willing tool or platform for the propagation of acts of terrorism.”

Kilic urged the Army to elevate media effect to an information age principle of war to ensure that its effort to engage the media does not merely result in an annex buried at the back of an operation order.

He said: “To ensure that the Army’s effort to engage the media does not merely result in an annex buried at the back of an operation order, the Army should elevate media effects to an information age principle of war.”