Is this TV station another arm of govt?

SIR: I have followed AIT over the years from its unsettled days in the mid-1990s up and until this moment. How can I forget Jika Attoh’s Kakaaki back then? The packages those days were first class, but the station is quickly losing its respect by my assessment.

  In 2009, when I watched without fail, I noticed that guest analysts invited to the studio used to be skewed in favour of the masses such that government policies were queried impartially but it is different these days especially in this political dispensation.

  I have noticed that no day passes by without airing a negative advertisement on the opposition.  Not that this is bad. Politicking involves the throwing up of sludge and flak on opponents and it is up to the masses to filter propaganda from the truth. What is disturbing is that there isn’t such balance in presentation of materials. The few times I saw adverts placed by the opposition, the catchword ‘sponsored’ was boldly displayed on screen. But this is not always the case with damaging advertisement on Buhari.

  Is that station becoming insularly partisan, the same way NTA was many years back which made many a Nigerian to look elsewhere for current news?  Is it any wonder then, that another television house for eight years non-stop has won the television station of the year?  

  The female anchors on Kakaaki who interviewed President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday, March 5, 2015, need be reminded that a feature interview, with a statesman on sensitive national issues must be handled with such proficiency, as it is done at other mass media like CNN, Aljazeera, Sky News, etc. – without intermittent, laughing gaffes, as exhibited on that day: for the hope of many Nigerians rest on what a sitting president had to say.

  There is the need for BON to set up a television watch body. Millions of people watch feature interviews, documentaries and news daily. Any negative appearance aired certainly will linger in the minds of people. 

  I hope the station can be as independent as other international broadcast media to give us a bird’s eye view as well as a worm’s eye view of all issues. I hope its management also takes criticisms seriously with the view to firming up the Nigeria’s news media.

  Could the management also separate its views from that of the advertised views aired on its channel? But should it want to be a pro-government news media, could they let us know, so we know what to expect daily. Just the way some Americans of the Republican party tune in to Fox Channels daily to catch up on anti-Democratic news or Aljazeera which is slightly anti-America.

• Simon Abah,

Port Harcourt, Rivers State.