Boko Haram: Confidentiality of news sources

Also published in Daily Trust 

The recently released Boko Haram propaganda video shows many of the more than two hundred abducted Chibok girls along with an armed masked man offering the federal government a swap deal to release the girls in exchange for the release of their captured fellow terrorists by the Nigerian military and other security agencies. However, though he defiantly reiterated the group’s determination to carry on their terror attacks, he nonetheless betrayed exhaustion-induced despair the group is apparently groaning under due to the sustained military pressure on them since the beginning of this administration.

Following the release of the video, the Nigerian Army declared Hajia Aisha Wakil, a member of the now dormant Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North, Ahmed Salkida, a journalist and Ahmed Bolori, an activist, for alleged link with the terror group. By the way, though the administration of President Buhari has considerably weakened Boko Haram terrorist group, which consequently faces imminent defeat, the failure of the military and intelligence agencies to locate the whereabouts of the abducted girls, let alone rescue them remains a huge source of embarrassment to it, considering how their abduction attracted the interest of the international community and influential non-governmental organizations around the world.

The video, therefore, must have further embarrassed the federal government, which explains why, in an apparent face-saving attempt, the Army Spokesman; Colonel Sani Usman hurriedly declared the three persons wanted, even though they were never invited for questioning in the first place. Yet, he asserted that the wanted persons ‘have information on the conditions and the exact location of these girls’, adding also that ‘They must therefore come forward and tell us where the group is keeping the Chibok Girls and other abducted persons to enable us (to) rescue them’, and citing the Terrorism Prevention Act 2011 (as amended) under which, according to him, ‘Nigerians could be punished for failure to disclose information about terrorists or terrorists’ activities’.

Whether the declaration was procedurally flawed or not, the ensuing controversy raised an interesting question about the ethical relevance of protecting the confidentiality of news sources in journalism, in the context of the ongoing war against Boko Haram terrorists. As a journalist with rare access to the group, Mr. Salkida is obviously the principal character in the controversy. His insistence on not ‘betraying’ his sources of news despite pressure from the Nigerian security agencies has earned him the trust of the leadership of the terrorist group. This, unsurprisingly, put him at loggerheads with the security agencies, and indeed exposed him to a strong suspicion of being an accomplice or, at least, a terrorist sympathizer, which he always denies.

Anyway, though protecting the confidentiality of news sources is an ethical principle in journalism, and it indeed facilitates unhindered flow and dissemination of information, its relevance isn’t unconditional, after all. There are certainly some circumstances under which upholding this ethical principle in its literal sense is tantamount to absolute insensitivity and moral irresponsibility.

In the context of the war on Boko Haram terrorists, for instance, withholding any information likely to facilitate their defeat under the pretext of upholding the professional ethic of protecting the confidentiality of news sources is immoral in humanitarian perspective, legally treasonable and indeed HARAM (i.e. absolutely prohibited) in Islamic point of view. Because the sanctity of people’s lives, their security, peace, dignities and properties is paramount, and it indeed overrides the importance of the journalistic ethic of protecting the confidentiality of news sources. In a nutshell, in this particular context, this principle is not ethical, after all, hence upholding it is not a moral virtue, either.

Besides, the terror group never had any justifiable reason to come into being in the first place, let alone justify their terror activities. Yet, over the years they have been committing all sorts of atrocities against people including massacres through indiscriminate bombardment campaign, organized plundering raids against communities, displacement of millions of innocent people and subjecting them to permanent misery and perpetual frustration. The terror group is also responsible for systematic tarnishing of the image of Islamic Salafism, which it falsely claims to uphold.

Therefore, clinging on to the literal sense of the journalistic ethic of protecting the confidentiality of news sources in order to withhold information about Boko Haram terrorists that is likely to enable the security agencies to foil their terror attacks or facilitate their defeat simply suggests a superficial understanding of the concept. In fact, it’s even more serious when viewed in Islamic perspective, which basically regards it as complicity that exposes whoever involved to the risk of sharing in whatever capital sins associated with any murder, raid, plunder and indeed any act of terrorism committed by the group that could have been averted if he had shared the information he keeps about the whereabouts of the terrorists and other information about them, with the relevant security and intelligence agencies in the country.