Human Rights Abuses Against Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria: Investigating Media Reportage

Introduction

The media has often been described with such names as ‘fourth estate and watchdog’. This implies that as a distinct organ with the power of information, the media keeps watch on the activities of government (and its agencies), while at the same, it protects the underprivileged, that is, the voiceless in the society.

Salawu (2016) reiterates that the media stands as the defenders of the social values or put differently, they serve as the conscience of the society. He says that one of the attributes of the different media is that like the sun, they illuminate the crevices in the society. They expose hidden things and bring every conduct and misconduct to public glare for scrutiny (Salawu, 2016). On his own part, McQuail (2000) cited in Tejumaiye and Adelabu (2011) says that the media is the arbiter of right and wrong, the roving eye of daily judgment.

Meanwhile, Asemah, Edegoh, and Ogwo (2013) say that the media have a very crucial role to play in the promotion of human rights in any country. The media, according to Asemah et al. (2013), are champions of human rights. They act as the eyes, ears and voices of the public, drawing attention to abuses of power and human rights, often at considerable personal risk. Through their work, they can encourage governments and civil society organisations to effect changes that will improve the quality of people’s lives (Asemah et al., 2013). In addition, Pate (2011) notes that the task of the press in the process of safeguarding and advancing human rights is enormous.

Meanwhile, Oyero (2010) notes that though journalists have expanded coverage of human rights into new areas, many human rights issues, are under-reported by the media (ICHRP, 2002 cited in Oyero, 2010). He notes that much reporting focuses on violations of rights during conflicts; human rights-issues that are less visible, or have slow processes, are rarely covered. Oyero (2010) and Farra’u (2017) agree that the news media in Nigeria follow the traditional focus on human rights by centering attention primarily on civil and political rights and this demonstrates that human rights coverage focuses on a very limited definition of human rights. This therefore brings to the fore, the need to investigate human rights abuses against victims of conflicts in post conflict situations, and victims of manmade and natural disasters, like the IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons), which is the focus of this research.

Furthermore, Hussain (2016, p. 3) cited in Apuke and Tunca (2018) notes that “the literature published on the displacement of people has not found too much rich or theoretically exact”. This is because the humanitarian community focuses more on the delivery of aid than on the documentation of research (Apuke, &Tunca, 2018). Ibrahim and Gujbawu (2017) say the situations of IDPs need to be presented to the world through various media in order for the general public to provide the aid they require. The news media are meant to demonstrate important roles (agenda-setting and framing of issues) so as to solicit aid for the Internally Displaced Persons through continuous and objective covering of the actual situation of IDPs (Ibrahim & Gujbawu, 2017). And when the case of IDPs has been of research concern, the focus has often been on coverage given to IDPs in terms of number of stories and prominence allotted to IDPs in newspapers as evidenced in the research conducted by Apuke et al. (2018), leaving out what they face in the Internally Displaced Camps (IDP), that is, research on IDPs have left out the coverage of human rights violations against IDPs.