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    Criticize, Don't Denigrate The President, Minister Tells Media

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said
    the media is free to criticize the President but not to denigrate him
    or his office.

    The Minister said this in Abuja on Thursday when he visited the
    Peoples Daily Newspapers, in continuation of the advocacy for the
    National Campaign Against Fake News, which was launched in July.

    He said that in the rush to de-market the President and his
    government, some mainstream media platforms have now resorted to the
    use of uncouth language to denigrate the person and office of the
    President.

    “In fact, fake news has taken another dimension. Now, it is not
    uncommon for otherwise respectable media organisations to accuse the
    President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria without backing up their
    accusation with an iota of evidence. The latest of such occurred two
    days ago, when a newspaper wrote an editorial in which it resorted to
    the use of uncouth language to denigrate the President on the
    farmers-herders clashes and other issues.

    ''In their eagerness to de-market the President, they forget that the
    President is the living symbol of the nation, and that by denigrating
    him, they are denigrating the country, including themselves,'' Alhaji
    Mohammed said.

    He said because of the impressive performance of the present
    administration, the critics know they could not take on the government
    on issues pertaining to performance, hence their resort to fake news.

    “They are unrelenting, because fake news is the only weapon they have
    against a performing Administration like ours. They know they cannot
    take on us on the issue of infrastructure, economy, fight against
    corruption, agricultural development, etc. They have therefore
    resorted to using fake news to de-market our Administration.
    Thankfully, they are failing,” the Minister said.

    He said even though the National Campaign Against Fake News has not
    discouraged its purveyors, it has brought the phenomenon to the front
    burner and equally heightened public discourse on the dangers of fake
    news which, he said, has the capacity to instigate religious and
    ethnic crisis in the country.

    Alhaji Mohammed, who described fake news as a global menace, said even
    though different countries have been evolving ways to deal with the
    issue, Nigeria’s approach is to appeal to the sense of responsibility
    of media practitioners, bloggers and social media influencers.

    He said the government will not toe the path of coercion or censorship
    in the campaign against fake news, and that it believes in the
    capacity of the media to self-regulate, so as not to self destruct.

    In his remarks, the Chief Operating Officer of the Peoples Daily
    Newspapers, Mr. Hameed Bello, described as very strategic the decision
    of the Minister to rally the media in furtherance of the campaign
    against fake news.

    “This visit is very strategic and I think we should advise the
    Honourable Minister to continue this kind of interface with the media
    because it has the capacity to correct some misconceptions that people
    have on the workings of government,” he said.

    Segun Adeyemi
    SA To Hon Minister of Information and Culture
    Abuja
    6 Sept. 2018

    PICTURES
    PIC 1: The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed
    (left), and the Chief Operating Officer of Peoples Daily Newspapers,
    Mr. Hameed Bello, during a visit by the Minister to the media house in
    Abuja on Thursday.

    PIC 2: The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed
    (third from left); Chief Operating Officer of the People’s Daily
    Newspapers, Mr. Hameed Bello (extreme left); Special Assistant to the
    President on Information and Culture, Mr. Segun Adeyemi (extreme
    right), during a visit by the Minister to the media house in Abuja on
    Thursday