By Amin Kef Sesay
Somebody read the arrant trash posted on social media about National Petroleum-Sierra Leone Limited (NP-SL Ltd) over the past weekend and called up this Press to roundly lambast the author as he has not only breach all journalistic rules but to also caution him to be mindful of serious breach of IMC rules and regulations governing, guiding and proscribing the practice of the profession in Sierra Leone.
The deliberate publication of fake news by any media organization or online network is an aberration within the journalism practice.
For a multinational company like NP-SL which guards its reputation and integrity jealously, the “journalist” who posted that trash that NP-SL has paid “raray” boys in Kissy to drug and intoxicate themselves to carry out diabolical acts paints a picture of NP-SL having the characteristics of a Mexican drug cartel.
That said, for NP-SL, fake news about the company is bad news. Such obscurantist intentions and dissemination of falsehood about NP-SL to the people through the virtual media, social media and old media is a depravity clearly aimed at spreading mischief, acrimony and crises. It is a total negation of journalistic values and news values.
If it is news, as the author of that disgustingly malicious parcel of lies says, it must be based on truth and facts. If it is news, it must be new. If it is news, it must be based on actualities. If it is news, it must be based on evidences.
If it is news, it must be fair. If it is news, it must be based on realities. If it is news, it must not be based on vendetta. If it is news, it must not be a hoax. If it is news, it must not be fallacy. If it is news, it must not be innuendoes.
Spreading fake news is very dangerous. It has legal liabilities. Fake news is when one fabricates news with harmful intent to spread lies. Otherwise, it is called-Mal-information – conveying genuine information with intent to cause harm.
The reason why spreading of fake news is very appalling is because it is presented as factually accurate and truthful when it is not. Let us imagine how much damage this can cost to the character and reputation of the person or entity that it is said about.
Yes, the post about NP-SL spending Le50 million to induce boys to break the law is sensational but outright dishonest on the part of the author and the paymaster(s).
Fake news is not new. Historically, it traces its origin to the 13th Century B.C., when Ramses the Great spread lies and propaganda portraying the Battle of Kadesh as a stunning victory for the Egyptians.
The fake news depicted Ramses the Great himself killing many of his foes at the Battle. Whereas, the Treaty between the Egyptians and the Hittites, reveals that the battle was actually a stalemate. Besides, Octavian misinformed the people against his rival Mark Antony, portraying him as a drunkard, a womanizer, and a mere puppet of the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra VII.
In the second and third Centuries A.D., false rumours were spread about Christians claiming that they were engaged in rituals and cannibalism, and incest.
During the Medieval period, a significant fake news in 1475 claimed in Trent that the Jewish community had murdered a two-and-half year-old Christian infant named Simonino.
The false news triggered the arrest and torture of Jews in the City, where fifteen of them were burned at stake. All attempts by Pope Sixtus IV to suppress the phony news proved abortive. The “blood libel” news had turned tragic as the Jews were claimed to have killed Christians deliberately to use the blood of the children for religions or ritual purposes.
In the aftermath of the invention of the printing press in 1439, the publication of counterfeit news became widespread as there was yet no standard journalistic ethics to follow.
It is remarkable that in the 18th Century, publishers of fake news were fined and banned in the Netherlands. A publisher, Gerard Lodewijk Van der Macht, was banned and fined four times by Dutch authorities. And he re-established his Press four times.
The publishers of fake news inspired the US Government into the Spanish-American war, which was triggered as USS Maine attacked the harbour of Havana, Cuba. That is how damaging fake news can be.
With the global network of information through the World Wide Web (WWW) in the 21st Century, fake news continues to be widespread. It is amazing how fake news is increasing at increasing rate with the emergence of the International Networking (Internet), and creation of untruthful, misleading, and unwanted information which lacks verification, like the mischievous lie told about NP-SL Ltd.
