President Muhammadu BuhariPresident Muhammadu Buhari has advised media organizations in Nigeria to stop peddling fake news and concentrate on reporting factual and reliable news to their readers and listeners.
The President, who spoke today, Thursday when he received in audience at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the Executive Director of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), World Service, Jamie Angus, advised further that truth should form the basis of all news reports.
He acknowledged that BBC is known for devoting time and resources to research into its stories before going public with them, adding: “the BBC has earned a reputation for being an impartial news medium that is relied upon by the people for correct information about events and happenings.”
He commended the medium for the sacrifices in conveying news and information to the vast communities in Hausa across the Sahel region, and its recent commencement of broadcasts, from Nigeria, of news and programming in Igbo, Yoruba and Pidgin.
This was even as the BBC team told the President that they had arrived Nigeria for the coverage of the forthcoming elections, including state gubernatorial debates.
The team also spoke about the elaborate deployment of correspondents in the states for elections as well the just concluded conference sponsored by the broadcasting organisation to tackle the growing menace of fake new.
