DailyTrust has acknowledged allegations of spreading false information about the Samoa Agreement signed by the Nigerian Federal Government on June 28, 2024, at the Organisation of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (OACPS) secretariat in Brussels, Belgium. On July 4, 2024,
DailyTrust published an article titled “LGBT: Knocks as Nigeria signs $150 Billion Samoa deal,” which sparked widespread criticism and backlash from the Federal Government.
In response, the Federal Government has threatened to take legal action against Daily Trust for allegedly disseminating misinformation and fake news in its report on the Samoa agreement.
This was announced by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, on Saturday, July 6, at the National Press Centre in Abuja.
Daily Trust, on Monday, posted an article titled, “Samoa Agreement: The Daily Trust Story Got It Wrong”
In this article the media outfit admitted to “sloppy reporting”, “misleading headline”, “non-factual claims” among others.
It However clarified the controversy the story caused wasn’t intentional and errors were on the side of duty, not of malicious intent.
The article reads partly: “On the specific issue of the Samoa Agreement, however, it is the media that got it wrong. After some research, my reading of the whole situation is that: a) the Daily Trust story of July 4, 2024 titled “LGBT: Knocks As Nigeria Signs $150 Billion Samoa Deal” is a piece of sloppy reporting; b) there is no provision mandating member states to adopt LGBT rights in the Samoa Agreement; and c) yes, the European Union (EU) actually tried, but ultimately failed, to have those provisions included in the agreement.
“The most important problem with the story in question is that it did not cite the contentious clauses in the agreement on which the entire reporting—and the ensuing controversy—is based. News is a factual claim,… Unfortunately, the story failed this fundamental test of reporting.”
