Mehmet Kilic, the president, Journalists and Writers Foundation, New York, urges the military and the media to work in harmony to eradicate the menace of terrorists

By Emeka Ejere

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.

Mehmet Kilic, the president, Journalists and Writers Foundation, New York, who stated this on the occasion of the 2019 Nigerian Army Media Conference in Abuja recently, noted that the media, among other groups of the society,  assume the critical frontline role in providing information on issues, government policies and actions, especially on the matters of security.

The theme for this years’ edition is, “Enhancing Media-Military Relationship for Effective Fight against Terrorism in Nigeria,”

Speaking on the topic, “Towards a Better Media/Army Relations”, Kilic noted that 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.

“Promoting the importance of effective media effects means that media engagement should not solely be the function of the Army Spokesperson, but that of the entire command.

“The Army must search for ways to further engage and develop a positive relationship with the media by increasing recognition of the importance of media engagements such as this conference.”

– Feb. 6, 2019 @ 14:27 GMT |