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Talkabout
Africa exclusive: Isioma Daniel has no regrets
Journalist
Isioma Daniel, who is at the centre of a fatwa in Nigeria, told
大象传媒 World Service in an exclusive interview broadcast on Wednesday
12 March, that she did not regret her actions and blamed the government
for the carnage which followed her controversial article.
Speaking
on the 大象传媒 African Service's Talkabout Africa programme,
she said she feels "let down" by her former newspaper
and unfairly blamed for the crisis.
Presenter Osasu
Obayiwana interviewed Isioma Daniel at a secret location. She spoke
about the events leading up to her article, which is blamed for
over 220 deaths following clashes between Muslims and Christians
in the city of Kaduna. Isioma says she thought her article was a
tongue-in-cheek piece about fashion.
The
interview covered various aspects of the story:
Blasphemy
"The
particular sentence I added in as a last minute thing actually.
I thought it was funny, light hearted and I didn't see it as anything
anybody should take seriously or cause much fuss.
"When
I'd written the piece, the whole tone turned out to be breezy and
sarcastic, light hearted, kind of tongue-in-cheek humour, I wasn't
completely sure if the tone was right. Not for a Nigerian audience
but for my editor because he had briefed me on what he wanted and
I was more worried about whether I had been able to produce the
goods."
Her
newspaper's reaction
"What
disappointed me was they seemed to be doing their best to dismiss
all the previous work I had done for the newspaper. (They were)
saying things that I was on the style desk and basically trying
to paint a picture that I was a frivolous and young journalist unable
to handle serious and intelligent issues, she had been writing about
handbags and shoes, obvious issues without knowing what she was
doing. They had to do what they did, I suppose to save the newspaper."
The
protest clashes
"Any
sensible person would realise that no matter how offended you are,
you completely lose your right to protest and your right to disagree
by being violent, by killing people because that is the greatest
wrong you can do.
"We
should have taken a stand, we should have said, Nigeria is a civilised
society and what these people were doing was wrong, completely unjustified.
That would have been a stronger legacy for the newspaper if we had
been brave enough to do that."
Notes
to Editors
大象传媒
World Service broadcasts programmes around the world in 43 languages
and is available on radio and online at .
It
has a global audience of 150 million listeners while its websites
receive 100 million page impressions each month.
大象传媒
World Service broadcasts more than 25 hours of programmes a week
specifically for Africa.
Network
Africa sets the day's agenda with a popular mix of news,
sport, features and music, while Focus on Africa
is a daily round-up of news and analysis from around the continent.
Talkabout
Africa is Africa's debating shop, while Africa
Live provides the interactive format for the continent
to connect.
All the
大象传媒's digital services are now available on ,
the new free-to-view digital terrestrial television service, as well
as on satellite and cable.
Freeview
offers the 大象传媒's eight television channels, interactive services
from 大象传媒i, as well as 11 大象传媒 radio networks.
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