The Law, The Press And The Urgly Side Of Social Media By: Abdulrasheed Ibrahim

There is no doubt that one of the rights guarantee under the
1999 of Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended
is the Right to Freedom of Expression and the Press. It is provided
under Section 39 of the said Constitution as follows:

(1) Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression,
including freedom to hold opinion and to receive and impart ideas
and information without interference.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) of this
section, every person shall be entitled to own, establish and
operate any medium for the dissemination of information, ideas and
opinions. Provided that no person, other than the Government of the
Federation or of a State or any other person or body authorized by
the President on the fulfillment of conditions laid down by an Act
of the National Assembly, shall own, establish or operate a
television or wireless broadcasting station for any purpose
whatsoever.
(3) Nothing in this section shall invalidate any law that is
reasonably justified in a democratic society
(a) For the purpose of preventing the disclosure of information
received in confidence ,maintaining the authority and independence
of courts or regulating telephony , wireless broadcasting
,television or the exhibition of cinematography films;or
(b) Imposing restrictions upon persons holding office under the
Government of the Federation or of a State, members of the Armed
Forces of the Federation or members of the Nigeria Police Force or
other Government security services or agencies established by
law.”

I have gone to this length in quoting extensively the
Constitution to buttress the issues for discussion here. The
freedom of expression is universal in the sense that the 1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights under Article 19 had also
declared that:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression
.This right includes freedom to hold opinion without interference
and to seek to receive and impart information and ideas through any
media and regardless of frontier.”

One thing that is very apparent from the position of law as
quoted from both the Constitution and the Universal Declaration
above is that various forms of mediums in place today would largely
claim that they derived their source of powers and authorities from
the said provisions. In as much as the law guarantees the freedom
of expression to every individual, such freedom at the same time is
not absolute because in the exercise of such rights there must be a
serious caution in order not violate the right of others. Any
person who on the pretense of exercising his freedom of expression
and in the process injures the character of another person through
libel or defamation without any justification is inviting problem
to himself.

Prior to the advent of the social media, the conventional press
be it, Newspapers, Magazines, Radios or Television Stations usually
exercise serious great caution on what they publish or broadcast to
the public. As in the other professions, there is also what is
called ETHICS in the Press Profession or Journalism. In the book
titled: JOURNALISM IN NIGERIA, a publication of the Nigeria Union
of Journalists (NUJ), Lagos State Council published in 1996, one
Mr. Lanre Idowu wrote under what he called “The Ethical Imperative”
that :

“Over time, the settled role society has assigned to journalists
is to give an intelligible ,non-fictional account of happening
around them .The pursuit of truth in bringing meaning to bear on
subjects of journalistic enquiry thus represents the minimum
,irreducible ethical concern expected of a journalist .To pass
fictional writing for journalistic practice is to unleash a grave
assault on the soul of journalism as a credible account of daily
happenings.To be sure , there are penalties in the statutes which
punish falsehood especially where they damage a person ‘s integrity
as in slander and libel . But because not all quarrels needs end in
the law court, not all misunderstandings or infractions in the
press are of malicious and criminal bent, it is settled that
journalism –being both a vocation and a profession-has rules of the
trade which need to be observed for the good health of
society.Where they are breached an unethical conduct is said to
have been displayed,”

With the advent of the social media, virtually everyone on the
internet today has become “a news reporter”, “editor” and
“photographer”. Many people today publish and share things that are
very irrational on Facebook and whats apps among other social media
platforms.Although it can not be contested that the social media
has its advantages but its disadvantages or ugly side seem to have
over shadowed its advantages or beautiful side. Some people in
annoyance have left the Facebook or a whats app group because they
cannot stomach a lot of things that go on on those platforms. I
recently had a course to make an intervention when a colleague
protested to a comment made by another colleague on a particular
whats app group platform as follow:

“…Please tread carefully .This anger can be better expressed.How
can you say the President of the country feasts on human blood
.Please, stop insulting our sensibilities.”

In my intervention, I said:

“I don’t know you are taking notice of the method of expression
of ….and some other lawyers on this platform as well as other
platforms .Most time I just decide to ignore them and refuse to
join issues with them .I personally detest the style of their
expression .There are ways you can express yourself witout being
insultive to other. Even if we hate or you don’t like a person ,we
must still be fair to him in our comments on him as lawyers .This
was the advice given to lawyers by our great Hon. Justice Ademola
Johnson, a former Chief Judge of Lagos State when he said ‘I must
say that the beauty of language particularly among members of this
noble profession is the restraint exercise in its use.It is the
tool of our profession and we must show leadership in the caution
with which we blend and use it’.”

In the campaigns for the 2018 NBA ELECTIONS of national
officers, I became so worried about the expressions (HATE SPEECHES)
being employed by lawyers on the social media that I wrote in an
article titled: NBA ELECTIONS, LAWYERS AND HATE SPEECHES that:

“My own word of advice to every one of us is that as lawyers, we
should please desist from trying to bring one another down. The way
we play politics in NBA should be model to the others to emulate
.We should play this politics with the spirit of sportsmanship. We
need not castigate any aspirant unnecessarily .Everyone should vote
for the candidate of his or her choice.”

The questions we need to continue to ask are that: To what
extent have lawyers show leadership in the caution with which they
blend the use of words on the social media or else where? In the
conventional press or journalism, how many editors will accept such
kind of words or comments for publishing? One is again highly
disappointed by the modes of the campaigns for the 2019
Presidential elections, all kinds of crude words, comments and
names calling were employed by some lawyer supporters of the two
major contenders in the elections i.e ATIKU and BUHARI. To call a
spade a spade, many of our colleagues have gone to the extreme in
their support for their preferred candidates. Must lawyers behave
like market women or taxi drivers because of politics? I have said
it before that, there is nothing bad in supporting a particular
candidate or have admiration for some politicians but taking it to
the point of extremism will be irrational.

Most time some people trade insultive and abusive words on
social media platform which has been turned to a forum where old
scores are settled or pound of flesh are taken. Any person that
wants to be mischievous and mislead people and incite them to
violence may post on a social media platform an old film clip of a
violent or unfortunate incident that happened in another country
and lie to the people that that was what was happening in a certain
part of the country. Some people on a social media platform will
copy a particular post re-edit it to suit their own selfish desire
and resend it to other unsuspecting people to mislead them.

The fact cannot not be denied that the social media is a very
interesting innovation in terms of quick dissemination of
information; a great development in connecting with people and
friends in different parts of the world but the reality on the
ground that it lacks to a large extent the proper ethics on which
the conventional press or journalism is premised on. While the
conventional press is mainly for the professionals who are well
grounded the the art and ethic of journalism ,the same thing can
not be said about most people that operate various social media
platforms which is why most time you come across various kinds of
fake news. It was very disturbing recently when the news came up on
social media that Professor Yemi Oshinbajo, SAN, the Vice President
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria resigned his position from
government. It was not until when the Professor came out himself to
debunk the news that it was discovered that it was fake news. A
responsible conventional press can not come out with such news
without first carrying out proper investigation which is lacking on
social media as most of them are not strictly subjected to a proper
control like the regular press.

While one is not out here to completely condemn or stand against
the use of social media in our day to day activities in the sharing
of genuine news and information, views, opinions, knowledge and
wisdom, what one is saying here is that we should all exercise
extreme caution in its use.Social media should be positively used
rather than being negatively used. Most of those engaging in social
media activities may not be trained journalists but there is the
need for them to heed the advice of Mr. Lanre Idowu that :

“It is settled that journalism –being both a vocation and a
profession- as rules of the trade which need to be observed for the
good health of society.Where they are breached an unethical conduct
is said to have been displayed,”

LONG WALK TO POLLING UNIT

Apology to the great late Nelson Mandela’s LONG WALK TO FREEDOM.
Nigerians on 23rd February 2019 eventually walk to the various
polling units in different parts of the country to cast their votes
for the candidates of their choices in the Presidential and
National Assembly elections.Those that are eventually declared
winners by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
will pilot the affairs of this country for another four years
beginning from 29th May 2019 to the 29th May 2023 when another set
of leaders will be elected.

As one of the Nigerian citizens who is always interested in
exercising his civic responsibility, I on that day embarked on a
long walk to my polling unit of about 5 kilometers from where I
presently live to where I used to live and where I registered and
obtained my Permanent Voter Card (PVC) prior to the 2015 General
Elections. Since there was an INEC directive restricting movement
of vehicles and as a law abiding citizen, I engaged in a long walk
to the polling unit. Although some election results have been
flying here and there but the only election results we can take
serious is that of the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) which we are still waiting for as at the time of dispatching
this post . In my own polling unit where I voted, APC scored 33
votes, PDP scored 20 votes while Accord Party scored 11 votes. As
we await the final announcement of the Presidential and National
Assembly Election results by the Chairman of the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmud Yakub, I say
God bless Nigeria!

REMARKABLE PRONOUNCEMENT ON PLEA OF FAIR COMMENT OR
QUALIFIED PRIVILEGE

“It should be borne in mind that once the plea of fair comment
or qualified privilege is made out, as it has been in the present
case, the inference of malice is rebutted, and the burden is thrown
upon the plaintiff of showing and proving ‘express malice’ against
the defendants. This is generally known as ‘malice in fact’ and to
be able to discharge this onus at the trial, it is important that
the plaintiff should deliver a reply, alleging express malice and
giving particulars of the facts from which such malice is to be
inferred “.

Per IBEKWE, JSC in Bakare Vs. Ibrahim (1973) 6 SC 205

THE SETTLED PRINCIPLE OF LAW

On what amount to publication to sustain action for libel

“It is well settled that no civil action for libel is
maintainable unless the words complained of have been published. In
order to constitute publication, the defamatory matter must be
published to a third party and not merely to the plaintiff.”

See Nsirim Vs. Nsirim (1990) 3 NWLR (Pt. 138) 285; UKO Vs. MBABA
(2001) 4 NWLR (Pt. 704) Pg. 474 Para G

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