On the Attacks Against AFAS Press and Student Journalists
Mahbubate Salaudeen
Campus journalism is fast becoming popular and recognised in many Nigerian tertiary institutions, with many campus journalists producing impactful stories alongside their academic studies. However, they often face difficulties like mainstream journalists, especially when the subject of a story is a student leader, the institution itself, or when the focus is the power harassment of a grim leadership system.
Student journalists take it up to provide information on the happenings within the campus–which could serve as feedback for the management to act upon–and are obligated to adhere to the core principles of journalism. But, this does not often sit well with student leaders who feel the hard-hitting publications of campus journalists are attacks on their persons and mere attempts to vilify them.
This can be seen in the recent outright opposition and attack on the Association Of Faculty of Arts Press carrying out their legitimate editorial assignment by the student leaders of the faculty, all in a bid to intimidate and divert attention from the subject and to silence the media voice through misdirected accusations.
Since AFAS Press published an opinion piece, titled “AFAS Call off Party: For What?”, to question the essence of the Call Off party just weeks after the strike was suspended and students were attempting to get their academic lives back on track, the press organisation has been facing a wave of backlash from the student leaders and their supporters.
Following the publication of the opinion piece, some members of the AFAS press were prevented by the security of the event from attending the event which took place on Friday, November 11, at Faculty of Arts’ LLT, with the excuse being “why should AFAS Press make a presence at a party they had initially wrote an article against?” The president of the faculty, Emmanuel Akinyoola was, in fact, also involved in the collaborated attack against the members of the press.
The press was further attacked in a release titled “AFAS Press: A Beacon of Misinformation and Backyard Journalism”, by the Faculty Legislative Council. Here, it is stated that “the AFAS press has proven to be just the very tool for the spreading of misinformation, which is sometimes malicious”.
This is not the first time that members of the press have been falsely accused of misinformation and falsification. Just recently, the now suspended Sports Director of the Faculty assumed that recent publications about his lackadaisical attitude towards Student leadership was an attempt by the press to defame him and earn cheap popularity.
To be a student journalist is to dig deep into issues, to shed light on them and probably afford people the opportunity to make informed decisions, and this is what AFAS Press has always been known for. Similar to this attack on AFAS Press journalism ethics is a statement by University of Ibadan Students Union (UISU) PRO, Olalekan Michael, against Campus Journalist, Abdulrahman Adebayo, branding the latter as “a self-acclaimed journalist”. This was in reaction to the investigative report Adebayo had written for UCJ UI on the financial impropriety and irregularities in the UI’ SU TV, a WhatsApp group and an initiative of the Office of the PRO UI’ SU, under the leadership of Olalekan Micheal.
For many student journalists who work on investigative stories involving the student leaders and sometimes, the university management, there is often a fear that such stories could present a threat to their grades and even their person.
Tijani AbdulKabir, the News Editor of AFAS Press who wrote the opinion piece on the Call Off part and has faced all sorts of harassment for this explains that “as a student journalist, the attacks suffered at the hands of student leaders is multifaceted. During election periods in the University, there is an increased percentage of journalists getting harassed by student executives alongside their supporters, whether online or physical.” He further stated that “navigating the space of being a campus journalist can take a toll on one’s mental health”.
Based on this and some other incidents that have transpired over the years in the Faculty of Arts, it is evident that the student executives in the Faculty of Arts in University of Ibadan see the press as a mechanism aimed at disrupting the natural order of the faculty and earning itself a fifteen seconds of fame.
