Journalist Lara Logan criticized media coverage of violence in Nigeria, accusing both local and international outlets of failing to accurately report on attacks targeting Christian communities and urging American journalists to fulfill what she described as their responsibility to report the truth.
Logan’s remarks focused on what she described as widespread violence carried out by Fulani groups, which she said has been mischaracterized by governments and media organizations.
She argued that explanations tying the violence to climate change or nomadic migration are misleading and obscure the severity of the situation.
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“There was no truth Nigeria. There was no media organizations. And you know what was happening to those people, to Lawrence and Masaru Kim and all of them, the journalists sitting in the big capital cities, the big cities and in the capital who were taking the line from the government and didn’t have the courage or the integrity or the professionalism, or the character, or the motivation to go to those frontline villages,” Logan said.
She described what she said was a pattern of journalists relying on official narratives rather than firsthand reporting from affected areas.
“They just bought the line from the government that it wasn’t really happening, and they bought the line from the US State Department that this is, this is nomadic tribesmen being forced to move from climate change. The Fulani are not really terrorists. Oh, the fact that they are Muslims got nothing to do with it. They’re just because they’re nomadic tribesmen. They’re looking for other land. They’re looking to go somewhere, you know, and that’s forcing them to clash with the Christian villages,” Logan said.
Logan rejected those explanations, calling them inaccurate and describing them as part of a broader effort to control information and shape public perception.
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“Nonsense. That’s absolute nonsense. That is just an example to you of how climate has been used as a scam. I mean, it’s not just fake. It’s much worse than that. All of these systems that are being implemented that are so profoundly dishonest, they’re systems of control. How do we control the people, control the information and the narrative, and then have that as cover to do whatever it is that we want to do,” Logan said.
She then described acts of violence that she said have been reported by journalists on the ground, including attacks on villages and civilians.
“Which, by the way, is to go into Christian villages and not only annihilate people. I mean, in one of the recent attacks that truth, Nigeria has reported on putting women and children inside cages in the market and burning them alive,” Logan said.
Logan also recounted a personal experience involving footage she said she received documenting violence in Nigeria.
“I mean, I was sitting down to dinner in my hometown in Texas one Friday night years ago, my husband was with me. It was when we were trying to get the sound of freedom was being blocked because people didn’t want child trafficking to be a conversation everyone was having, and we were doing our best to help get that movie put out. And I got a video. I showed it to my husband as we sat down, he couldn’t eat, and it was a young, 18 year old, 17-18, year old girl from Nigeria, who was pulled from one of the villages, and as they were slicing off her head, they were digging her baby out of her dummy, and she was well advanced in pregnancy,” Logan said.
She emphasized what she described as the risks taken by journalists reporting from conflict zones and the challenges they face in gaining recognition for their reporting.
“I mean, Lawrence once was calling Doug and myself, he’s sitting in the back of a meat wagon on the bodies of his friends and neighbors with malaria. Remember he after that? He went out with malaria for weeks. I mean, these the courage of the people who are on the front lines reporting this cannot be overstated. But the challenge that they face is that the media itself denies the reality that they see and report on with their own eyes and ears,” Logan said.
Logan concluded by addressing members of the U.S. press, calling on them to take action and report more aggressively on global issues.
“I mean, that’s without conscience. Honestly, I stand before all of you in the National Press Club of the United States of America, the most powerful free nation on earth where we have first amendment rights. And I I mean, I cannot say strongly enough to the press corps, do your job. Do your job, because we, we are supposed to be the inspiration and also the safety net for journalists everywhere it is,” Logan said.
She criticized what she described as failures within the media to hold individuals accountable and to report difficult realities.
“It is truly without conscience that you can witness the execution of people and have it denied because journalists are too lazy, too corrupt, too stupid, too cowardly to stand up and tell the truth that is without conscience. And you know, we have to stop being afraid of what people will say to us, we have to stop allowing those who tell the truth to be punished and those who lie to be rewarded,” Logan said.
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