By Saidu Idris
365Daily – President Muhammadu Buhari has urged journalists to desist from promoting stories that will exacerbate the tensions in the country.
Buhari said this in a statement issued on Sunday, April 2, 2021, by his spokesman, Femi Adesina, to mark the 2021 World Press Freedom Day.
While reiterating his administration’s commitment to freedom of the press, he said: “The media must be sensitive to what we are going through as a country, and anything that would exacerbate the situation, and further inflame passions and emotions, should be avoided.
“The media needs to ensure that while informing, educating, entertaining and setting agenda for public discourse, it does not encourage incendiary words and actions that could further hurt our unity in diversity.”
Buhari assured of his cooperation with the media in discharging its duties in line with the theme of this year’s World Press Freedom Day, ‘Information as a Public Good.’
The President noted that freedom of the press is ”an irreducible minimum in a democracy that would flourish”, adding that freedom must, however, be used responsibly.
“Licentious freedom, the President says, is different from freedom with responsibility, and charges the Nigerian media to embrace the latter, rather than the former,” the statement said.
It added, “He charges those who manage information for government to do everything in the public interest, while also encouraging the media to use the Freedom of Information Act available to make its jobs easier.
“The President submits that it is very vital to have access to reliable information in an era of misinformation, disinformation and hate speech, all to cause discord in society.”