The presidential media team announced that it had a meeting with BBC on its media coverage of the #EndSARS protests, and concluded that the BBC has reported “extensively” on all sides of the story.
This was disclosed by Garba Shehu, the spokesperson to President Muhammadu Buhari in a social media statement on Friday.
This may be seen as a U-turn from President Buhari’s speech earlier this week, accusing the BBC and CNN of being unbalanced with their reporting of the #EndSARS incident.
“Following concerns expressed about reporting of #endsars in Nigeria, the presidential Media team met with the BBC team to discuss the matter. We acknowledge that the BBC has reported extensively on all sides of this story. We are pleased that the BBC has heard our concerns,” Shehu said.
Following concerns expressed about reporting of #endsars in Nigeria, the presidential Media team met with the BBC team to discuss the matter. We acknowledge that the BBC has reported extensively on all sides of this story. We are pleased that the BBC has heard our concerns.
— Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) December 11, 2020
What you should know
- Nairametrics reported this week that President Muhammadu Buhari had said that the reports of foreign media organizations, including CNN and BBC, on the EndSARS protests were not balanced, and stated that he was disgusted at their coverage of the incident.
- Following an investigative report into the Lekki Shootings by CNN, the FG stated in November that the Army did not shoot at #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki Tollgate, describing the alleged mass killings as “a massacre without bodies.”
- The Federal Government also wrote a petition to the US-based Cable News Network (CNN), demanding an immediate and exhaustive investigation into its report on the Lekki Tollgate shooting, to determine its authenticity and conformity with basic standards of journalism.
