On 14 July 2006, the International Press Centre commissioned me to carry out within a three-week period, an assessment of the state of journalism education, conflict-sensitive reporting and media responsibility in Nigeria in relation to print-media coverage of recent religion-related conflicts.

This report is the outcome of my inquiry into the state of conflict-sensitive journalism and media responsibility in relation to print-media coverage of religion-related conflicts in Nigeria. This report details my findings, conclusions and recommendations. A separate report contains my findings on the extent of conflict-appreciation and conflict awareness in currently available journalism education in Nigeria.

Specifically, I was asked to evaluate the print-media coverage of two recent religion-related violent conflicts in Nigeria: the ‘Miss World Riots’ of 2002 and the ‘Danish Cartoon Riots’ of 2006.

This report makes the value judgement that the two principles of conflict-sensitive reporting and diversity, along with the two conventional principles of accuracy and balance must under-gird a journalist’s coverage of any conflict, and especially religion-related conflicts, in a multicultural and multi-religious country such as Nigeria, if there is to be a chance for social inclusion, sustainable development and good governance – and if a plural democracy is to survive and flourish.

Arguments for this judgement are contained in the next Chapter of this report.

 Although some of the conclusions and recommendations of this report may apply to the media in general, the study focused only on the print-media.

The report’s conclusions apply specifically to religion-related conflicts, including violent ones. It sidesteps the various debates: as to whether ‘religious conflicts’ are a real sociological category, as to whether it is possible to know that a particular conflict is ‘religiously-motivated’, or indeed whether the types of conflicts in question should more correctly be called ‘ethno-religious conflicts’. Equally avoided is an ancillary debate, as to whether these are truly value-based conflicts involving religion or merely resource-based conflicts in which religion is employed as a tool. These debates, important as they are, are not particularly relevant to the actual issues covered here.

 It is sufficient that this report applies to religion-related conflicts, regardless of whether (it is possible to know that) religion is the sole factor in the conflict or only one of several factors, and regardless of whether religion is a ‘genuine’ cause of grievance or is only being ‘manipulated’. Thus the two terms ‘religious’ and ‘religiously-motivated’ are avoided in describing any conflict. Whether or not they can perfectly be described as ‘religious conflicts’ and ‘religiously-motivated conflicts’, all the various conflicts cited in the fore-going debates at least share in common the fact that they are religion-related. This minimal (encompassing) terminology is thus adopted throughout.

Although this study looked at only the print-media coverage of two religion-related violent conflicts – the ‘Miss World Riots’ of November 2002 which began in Kaduna and spread to other cities and the ‘Danish Cartoon Riots’ of February 2006 that began in Maiduguri and spread to other cities – the broad conclusions regarding conflict-sensitive journalism and media responsibility apply to every other religion-related violent conflict in Nigeria since 1999.

Although print-media from the two periods in question were generally consulted, time and other constraints allowed only detailed assessment of four national newspapers: the Daily Trust, The Guardian, The Punch and This Day.

In instances where copies of the allegedly ‘pro-Muslim and pro-North’ Daily Trust were not obtainable, copies of the also allegedly ‘pro-Muslim and pro-North’ New Nigerian – of the same dates – were sought. This was to ensure that, as much as possible, allegedly ‘secular, pro-Christian and pro-South’ newspapers – including The Guardian, The Punch and This Day – did not solely inform any analysis or judgement.

Even though the contents of this report are based on detailed analyses of only the aforementioned newspapers, my broad conclusions about the overall quality of print-media journalism with respect to the coverage of religion-related conflicts in Nigeria are valid. Since the Daily Trust, The Guardian, The Punch and This Day, by all accounts, have perhaps the highest concentrations of sound and experienced newspaper journalists in the country, probably command between themselves the majority of current newspaper readership, are relied upon more by professionals, the educated elite, and the political class, than other newspapers, it is unlikely that other newspapers would have surpassed their quality of journalism with regard to the issues in question. Where they are assessed to have performed poorly with respect to conflict-sensitive journalism (or accuracy, balance or diversity), it is likely that other newspapers would have done even much worse.