| 22981 |
abstract |
Following months of political instability in Nigeria and the massacres of Igbo people
in the north of the country during the summer and fall of 1966, the situation deteriorated
rapidly. On 30 May 1967, the Eastern Region (Igboland) unilaterally declared its independence,
triggering a civil war that, coupled with a tight economic blockade of the secessionist
region and the logistic support of foreign powers, turned into a three-year conflict
that claimed over three million lives. Nigerian and Biafran troops were engaged in
battle from 6 July 1967 until 12 January 1970, when the war ended with Biafra’s surrender.
All through the conflict, but especially from 1968—9, the world media converged on
Nigeria, trying their best to cover the conflict for their audiences, with mixed fortunes.
This study, based on radio bulletins gathered daily in France from 1968 to 1970 from
the BBC World Service, Voice of America, France-Inter, Radio-France International,
Europe n.1, Radio-Brussels, Radio-Lausanne and Radio-Canada, reveals the way the media
groped their way through a flurry of contradicting nuggets of information in a desperate
hunt for the truth on a far-away nightmare, with unreliable sources contributing to
the confusion and a proliferation of unreliable pieces of news. In spite of these
limitations, the media succeeded in covering the progress on the ground, the unfolding
of the humanitarian situation and mounting casualties, the arms race and the political
scene, and eventually achieved their aim — that of attracting the world’s attention
to Nigeria. |