Criticize don’t denigrate the President- Minister

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the media is free to criticize the President but should not denigrate him or his office.
The minister stated this yesterday in Abuja when he visited the office of the Peoples Daily Newspapers, in continuation of his ministry’s campaign against fake news, a statement by his assistant Segun Adeyemi said.
“Now, it is not uncommon for otherwise respectable media organisations to accuse the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria without backing up their accusation with an iota of evidence. The latest of such occurred two days ago, when a newspaper wrote an editorial in which it resorted to the use of uncouth language to denigrate the President on the
farmers-herders clashes and other issues,” he said.
The minister said because of the performance of the present administration, the critics know they could not take on the government on issues pertaining to performance, hence their resort to fake news.
He said the government will not toe the path of coercion or censorship in the campaign against fake news, and that it believes in the capacity of the media to self-regulate, so as not to self-destruct.
In his remarks, the Chief Operating Officer of the Peoples Daily Newspapers, Mr. Hameed Bello, described as very strategic the decision of the minister to rally the media in furtherance of the campaign against fake news.