Sunday Sermon: Apology Does Not Erase Harm Caused by Defamation, but Soludo Should Forgive

Sunday Sermon: Apology Does Not Erase Harm Caused by Defamation, but Soludo Should Forgive

By Tony Okafor

By his own public confession, Ejike Ofoegbu Experience, publisher of Igbo Times Magazine and INews, did not merely make a journalistic error. He says he knowingly fabricated stories, invented quotations and attributed them to Anambra State Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, and his son, Ozonna, all in pursuit of online traffic, audience engagement and financial gain.

If his confession is genuine and accurately reflects what happened, this is a serious matter.

Journalism is not fiction. A publisher has no right to manufacture quotations, put them into the mouths of living persons and circulate them as news.

To falsely portray a governor as disowning his own son, or to fabricate claims about drunkenness and domestic violence, is capable of causing enormous damage to personal reputation, family relationships and public standing.

Ordinarily, a person who deliberately engages in such conduct should face the full consequences of the law. Knowingly publishing defamatory falsehoods may expose a person to civil liability and, where the elements of an applicable criminal offence are established, criminal prosecution.

Nigerian law recognises defamatory matter as material capable of injuring a person’s reputation by exposing the person to hatred, contempt or ridicule.

At the very least, Governor Soludo and members of his family who were personally defamed could consider civil proceedings and seek substantial damages.

An apology does not automatically erase the harm caused by a defamatory publication. A retraction may be relevant in assessing remorse and damages, but it does not turn a deliberate falsehood into truth or necessarily extinguish legal liability.

Every fabricated story presented as news weakens public confidence in journalism. When readers can no longer distinguish between verified reporting and fiction manufactured for clicks, every responsible journalist suffers. The profession becomes poorer, and society becomes more vulnerable to misinformation.

This is why the admission that the stories were allegedly fabricated for “traffic, audience engagement and financial gain” is particularly disturbing.
Such conduct deserves consequences.
Yet we believe Governor Soludo should consider forgiveness.

Forgiveness does not mean pretending that nothing happened. It does not mean endorsing fake news or surrendering the right to protect one’s reputation. Nor does it prevent the public from condemning the conduct. Rather, it can mean accepting a full, unconditional and prominent retraction after the offender has publicly admitted wrongdoing and taken responsibility.

The apology in the public domain is unusually explicit. The publisher did not merely say he was “misquoted” or that his posts were “misinterpreted.” He admitted that the stories were “fake, false, fabricated and untrue.”
He accepted responsibility and acknowledged that they were published for traffic and financial gain.

That confession should stand as a warning to every blogger and publisher who believes that the internet is a lawless territory where reputations can be destroyed for clicks.

Governor Soludo should forgive him in the spirit of the timeless saying, “To err is human; to forgive, divine.”

This does not diminish the gravity of what was done. Rather, it offers the offender an opportunity to learn from his misconduct and turn a new leaf.

The public confession, apology and retraction should serve as a lasting lesson to him and to others who may be tempted to sacrifice truth and people’s reputations on the altar of clicks, traffic and financial gain.
Let the apology be accepted, but let the lesson never be forgotten.