Special Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has accused international broadcaster Al Jazeera of misrepresenting his February interview by editing it and inserting external footage.
Bwala made the allegation on Tuesday during an interview with media personality Ifedayo Olarinde, popularly known as Daddy Freeze, which aired on Facebook.
Explaining why he decided to speak out, Bwala said he initially stayed silent despite online reactions to the interview, claiming that the version posted online was incomplete.
“What they aired on YouTube was about 49 minutes and the full interview was about one hour 19 minutes or thereabouts. They edited about 20 minutes and it is very important that the world ask them to upload the full video,” he said.
“I kept quiet in the past few days because opinions have been expressed and heard. But there is a fact that has been incorrectly pushed and has formed the basis for conversations on social media, which is not true unfortunately. They were pushed by Al Jazeera, so I said I should just set the record straight.”
Bwala said the interview with the Qatar-based broadcaster was recorded on February 11 but only uploaded on March 5.
“Al Jazeera invited me for an interview. I went. The interview was conducted on 11 February almost a month ago because they said that’s their practice. It was uploaded on 5 March,” he explained.
He added that the broadcaster normally airs interviews on its television network before uploading them online, noting that the TV broadcast typically runs for about an hour, while the full version is available on YouTube.
“Usually, they would air it on their network before they upload and the time for the air is always about one hour so they don’t have the full interview on their network, but it is always available on their YouTube,” Bwala said.
He further alleged that his interview was postponed, citing trending issues around Iran and Israel as the reason for the delay, but the interview was eventually aired on YouTube.
Bwala, who has spent over 23 years in the media industry, also criticised what he described as unusual editorial practices.
“I’ve been in this media game for about 23 years and usually what media houses do is that after an interview they upload it. I have never been in an interview that was conducted and after that the interview or the host will take the interview, doctor it and import external videos that were never part of that interview and publish it and tell the world that that is what happened,” he said.
Addressing claims circulating online that he refused to answer a question during the interview after a video clip was played, Bwala said:
“I’ve seen a comment on social media that suggested that Maryam asked me a question and I denied and I could not answer. Then he played a video and then he asked me another question. Then I kept denying and denying and denying. Unfortunately, that was not what happened. I was asked a question and then I answered, but after the interview, Al Jazeera went and did a fresh production of eight minutes of what they wanted to push and what they did was cut and join and cut and join.”
