America’s Cable News Network (CNN) has shifted grounds on its earlier coverage which asserted that officers of the Nigerian Army killed 38 persons at the Lekki Tollgate in Lagos on October 20, 2020 following the nationwide #Endsars protest.
CNN retraced its steps and effected some amendment on its original assertion via its Twitter handle on Friday.
In the reconsideration by CNN entitled: “Clarification,” the global news organization in its tweet maintained that it did not attribute the death toll to Amnesty International.
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The news medium also rowed back on the fact that it failed to indicate in the narrative that the 38 persons killed were not specific to the Lekki tollgate incident alone but it accounted for what happened across Nigeria in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protest.
It tweeted: “Clarification: This tweet from October 23 did not attribute the death toll from protests in Nigeria to Amnesty International. The tweet also did not make it clear that the death toll was for protests across the country.”
It would be recalled that the global news organization had reported the killings in both tweets and reports filed by its reporter, Stephanie Busari.
While the opening paragraph of the amendment to the narrative on the #Endsars protest on October 22, 2020, avers that the reported 38 deaths on October 20, 2020 was nationwide, the tweet on October 23, 2020 however suggest that the Nigerian Army carried out the alleged killing that day.
As indicated in the same opening paragraph of the narrative, the global news channel credited the source of information about the of 56 persons to Amnesty International, a claim it later reconsidered during the early hours of Friday.
The CNN had narrated in its account: “At least 56 people have died across Nigeria since the #EndSARS protests began on October 8, with 38 killed across the country on Tuesday alone, according to human rights group Amnesty International.”
It would be recalled that the federal government had protested strongly against the CNN report of the incident, describing it as biased and unethical. In a protest letter issued by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, the government had urged the management of CNN to retrace its steps over its coverage of the Lekki Tollgate protest.
But in response, rather than address the concerns expressed by the Nigerian government via Lai Mohammed’s letter, the CNN went a step further to unveil Part 2 of its coverage of the protest.
However, this latest clarification by CNN has attracted mixed comments from Nigerians. While many commend CNN for its ethical , forthright and professional approach to the incident, others insist that the organization should simply own up to the fact that it made some initial errors and consequently issued misleading reports.
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