AIT free to cover Buhari’s activities, says APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) says all accredited media organisations in the country, including the African Independent Television (AIT), are free to cover the activities of President-elect Muhammadu Buhari.

On Monday night, Garba Shehu, spokesman of the Buhari campaign organisation, announced that Buhari had barred AIT from covering his activities, citing issues of “ethics and standard” that need to be sorted out with the broadcast medium.

“AIT has been asked to step aside based on security and family concerns. In addition, Buhari has decided that they will have to resolve some issues relating to issues of standard and ethics,” Shehu said.

“We will be talking with them to try and resolve the matter, but for now the station has been asked to stay aside… You can quote me that I said that we have asked them to step aside and that we are resolving the the issues of ethics and standards with them.”

However, Lai Mohammed, national publicity secretary of APC, issued a statement to say the incoming Buhari administration would not discriminate against any media organisation, irrespective of its role during the electioneering leading up to the recent polls.

It enjoined all media organisations to observe the highest level of professional standards in carrying out their duties.

“There is a code of ethics guiding the practice of journalism in Nigeria, and this demands every journalist to ensure a strict adherence to the highest levels of ethics and professionalism in carrying out their duties,” the party said.

“There must be repercussions, within the realms of the law, for media organisations which have wantonly breached the code of ethics of the journalism profession and turned themselves to partisans instead of professionals. But such repercussions will not include barring any accredited media organisation from covering the activities of the president-elect.”

In the lead-up to the 2015 presidential election, AIT consistently aired documentaries against Buhari and Bola Tinubu, and other prominent APC faces that the party considered “defamatory”.

Two weeks before the election, though, a Lagos state high court restrained AIT from televising the Tinubu documentary.

Yemi Osinbajo, Buhari’s running mate, then pre-empted makers of the documentaries by also getting a federal high court sitting in Lagos to restrain the TV station, as well as the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) and the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), against airing any damaging video against him.