France and Nigeria: How the World's Media Responds to Terrorism

© AFP 2023 / SIA KAMBOUA man holds a placard that reads "Je suis Charlie, n'oublions pas les victimes de Boko Haram" (I am Charlie, let's not forget the victims of Boko Haram) as people gather outside the French embassy in Abidjan, on January 11, 2015
A man holds a placard that reads Je suis Charlie, n'oublions pas les victimes de Boko Haram (I am Charlie, let's not forget the victims of Boko Haram) as people gather outside the French embassy in Abidjan, on January 11, 2015 - Sputnik International
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After ubiquitous coverage of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, the world ignores 2000 people killed in the worst Boko Haram massacre yet.

Image taken from video by Nigeria's Boko Haram terrorist network - Sputnik International
Trouble Brewing: West Turns Blind Eye to Boko Haram’s Bloody Massacre
MOSCOW, January 14 (Sputnik) – The world’s undivided attention on France following the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a kosher supermarket have completely overshadowed a much bloodier terrorist attack, Boko Haram’s raid on the city of Baga in Northern Nigeria which has killed as many as 2,000 people. The incident has led to public debate over the media’s role in reporting events and the weight that certain events should be given over others.

One issue when it comes to uneven coverage is that of media visuals. While Paris is a global city and has thousands of reporters and cameras, all of whom can be easily dispatched to report on the event, Baga is a town in the remote northeast corner of Nigeria, on the receded coast of Lake Chad. Unlike Paris, the area is unsafe for journalists as Boko Haram fighters still roam freely and there is a risk of being attacked as the Nigerian army is still struggling to secure the area.

Nigeria’s home-grown Islamic extremist Boko Haram group strike - Sputnik International
Africa
Boko Haram Militants Seize Nigerian Town of Baga, Local Military Base
A Haaretz editorial arguing for greater sympathy with victims of terrorist attacks in Nigeria brings up the fact that attention to Nigeria’s Bring Back Our Girls campaign has failed. The failure is put down to Nigerian government’s inability to deal with the problem of Boko Haram, despite military aid from Washington, because of its own corruption and human rights violations. Criticism of the Nigerian political establishment was also echoed in the Guardian, which in a discussion with its readers learned that many Nigerians think that their government is to blame for the lack of coverage and focus on the tragedies. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Nigeria’s president expressed condolences for the victim of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, but not for the people killed by Boko Haram.

Although it may appear unfair to blame the Nigerian government’s inability to overcome the world’s indifference to Nigeria’s troubles, political motivation does play a role. As CNN noted, the attention on Charlie Hebdo and the national unity rally that followed it appeared to benefit Hollande, who before the attacks had an abysmal 13% approval rating, and also to hurt Marine Le Pen’s National Front because of its focus on national unity, ignoring the issues of internal disunity in French society that caused the radicalization of the gunmen in the first place. Nigeria has the opposite problem as Boko Haram controls what the Wall Street Journal calls the primarily Muslim stronghold of opposition to the current president, Goodluck Jonathan, who is a Christian. Because of that, it is politically beneficial to the Nigerian president to not have that part of the country be able to vote in the upcoming Nigerian general election in February.

However, the world’s media ignoring the tragedy in Nigeria and the threat of Boko Haram is also criticized. Nigeria’s Catholic Archbishop Kaigama told the BBC World Service that with the international support and national unity of France after its terrorist attacks, "We need that spirit to be spread around. Not just when it happens in Europe, but when it happens in Nigeria, in Niger, in Cameroon."

PICTURES OF THE YEAR 2014 A Seleka fighter wears a hat that reads Bocou Harame, in a reference to the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, in the town of Bria, in this April 9, 2014 file photo - Sputnik International
Boko Haram Launches Fresh Attack on Baga, Northeast Nigeria
Lastly, there is the issue of social media. Whereas France had the #JesuisCharlie campaign which, as CNN’s piece noted, made it possible for people from around the world to watch the events unfold from their tablets and smartphones, Nigeria’s remote towns are not always reached by mobile internet, and the previous social media campaign #BringBackOurGirls is only associated with disappointment as social media activism failed to bring back the kidnapped girls. Furthermore, previous social media campaigns in Africa such as the Kony 2012 campaign to catch the Lord’s Resistance Army warlord Joseph Kony, initiated by the activist group Invisible Children only became associated with the group’ ulterior motive

Altogether, the problem of reporter access and the lack of social media coverage left the killing of over 2,000 people in Nigeria overshadowed by the attacks on Charlie Hebdo. France had those benefits as in addition to a government that took advantage of the spotlight directed toward the attacks in an attempt to increase its popularity over the opposition, whereas in Nigeria chaos and violence in an opposition stronghold appears to benefit the president.

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