Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has urged Nigerian media organisations to stop giving prominent coverage to terrorists and other criminal groups, arguing that such publicity advances their agenda.
Speaking on Thursday at a security summit organised by the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in collaboration with the Department of State Services (DSS), Idris said newsrooms should exercise greater editorial judgment when reporting security issues.
"Please take these terrorists and criminals off your front pages. This is what they crave for free of charge," the minister said.
Idris stressed that his call was not an attempt to limit press freedom but a plea for responsible journalism that supports national stability.
"Nobody is calling for censorship. Nobody is asking the media not to do its job, but we must know that we must have a country to keep. We must have our unity to uphold so that Nigeria can make progress," he said.
The minister expressed concern that reports on attacks by terrorists, bandits and kidnappers often receive more attention than the efforts of security agencies.
"It saddens my mind. I feel very unhappy when I see our front pages, when I see our headlines, reporting the activities of these criminals and underplaying the ones by the security agencies," he said.
According to Idris, responsible journalism requires editors and reporters to carefully consider what deserves prominence in the public interest.
"The best journalists are those who know what not to report in the interest of nation-building," he added.
He said Nigeria's evolving security challenges—including terrorism, violent extremism, cybercrime, organised crime and misinformation—make stronger collaboration between the media and security agencies essential.
Idris also commended the improving relationship between journalists and the DSS, noting that the NUJ had reported no cases of journalists being arrested or detained by the agency over the past one and a half years. He urged other security agencies to maintain similar standards.
The two-day security summit brought together representatives of the International Press Institute (IPI) Nigeria, the military, the police and other stakeholders. The Director-General of the DSS is expected to deliver a presentation on the second day of the event.
Nigeria continues to battle multiple security threats, including insurgency, banditry and kidnapping, even as security agencies report gains in operations against armed groups. During his Democracy Day address, President Bola Tinubu said more than 13,000 terrorists had been killed, while over 124,000 others had surrendered.
