In the last week or so I chanced upon the Sahara Reporters story titled “MFM harassment of SR”. The story, including video detailed the encounter between Mr Sowore of SR and MFM officials. Let me at this point state quite clearly that I am not a member of MFM; I have never set foot in any of their branches. As a matter of fact I don’t do organised religion and I am not holding brief for MFM.
In the last week or so I chanced upon the Sahara Reporters story titled “MFM harassment of SR”. The story, including video detailed the encounter between Mr Sowore of SR and MFM officials. Let me at this point state quite clearly that I am not a member of MFM; I have never set foot in any of their branches. As a matter of fact I don’t do organised religion and I am not holding brief for MFM.
Two things made me take an interest in this story; one of them is as a result of a project I am currently leading for a vehicle manufacturer in Germany. This project required an understanding of the “Bundesdatenschutzgesetz” BDSG for short which in a nutshell is Germany’s implementation of the European Union’s Data Protection Directive of October 1995 which underpins all EU data protection and privacy acts. Our client demanded to know what sort of data we capture from their network, which of our data centres we store such data and who has access.
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The second was my invitation by the University of East London (UEL) last month to give a talk about the privacy of Cloud Computing data to their Masters students of Business Information Systems. Given the amorphous nature of Cloud Computing and its consequent trans-border issues, I had to research data and privacy laws in Europe, US and other regions of the world including Nigeria ahead of this talk and I must say I came out the wiser and that informed my exchange with Mr Sowore on Twitter.
Mr. Sowore had kindly followed my Twitter handle @NaijaWatch a couple of weeks ago and I reciprocated, immediately. He first twitted the story to which I responded by telling Mr Sowore he had breached the privacy of MFM as stated under our Constitution. For complete I understanding I hereby reproduce our tweets.
Omoyele Sowore @YeleSowore
How Vicious Mountain of Fire Church Security Molested, Arrested & Detained SaharaReporters Crew In Nigeria | SR http://bit.ly/ZcAGU9
Patrick Okenzo @NaijaWatch
@YeleSowore what u did at MFM was a breach of the right of d members 2 privacy as enshrined in constitution. Refer sections 45 a&b #Nigeria
Omoyele Sowore @YeleSowore
@NaijaWatch It is completely untrue, there is no breach of privacy involved in attending an (event) to which the public was dutifully invited.
Patrick Okenzo @NaijaWatch
@YeleSowore you are wrong. MFM clearly told u 2 stop filming & u refused. That z a violation of sections 37, 39,40 &41 of our constitution
Patrick Okenzo @NaijaWatch
@YeleSowore in US u wld hve violated privacy implied in 1st,3rd,9th & 14 Amendments. Filming when told 2 stop is breach of privacy
Patrick Okenzo @NaijaWatch
@yelesowore I don't do religion but I wl defend d right of Xtains & Muslims 2 worship God even it means bashing their heads against a wall
Omoyele Sowore@YeleSowore
@NaijaWatch I agree with you, except that the right to worship doesn't trump other fundamental rights, including the right to seek, receive-
Patrick Okenzo @NaijaWatch@yelesowore regardless of what we think of pastors, pple hve a right 2 worship God as they wish. Mocking them like u did is unacceptable
Omoyele Sowore @YeleSowore
@NaijaWatch If anyone was mocked in the encounter, it was our crew members, I was ridiculed for wearing cowrie shells around my neck
Patrick Okenzo @NaijaWatch
@YeleSowore u had clear shots of peeps praying & ridiculed them with graphics. MFM did not broadcast their view abt cowrie shells, u did
Omoyele Sowore @YeleSowore
@NaijaWatch-and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers"-Article 19 of UDHR
Patrick Okenzo @NaijaWatch
@YeleSowore UHDR cannot supersede our constitution or that of any country. UDHR -20 every1 has freedom of peaceful assembly.
Patrick Okenzo @NaijaWatch
@YeleSowore I support ur actions on many fronts but not this MFM one. So let's agree to disagree #Nigeria
Omoyele Sowore @YeleSowore
@NaijaWatch This is cherry picking, you are judging wrongly based on two sets of evidence-clear evidence from us and total silence from MFMs
Patrick Okenzo @NaijaWatch
@YeleSowore it is difficult 2 argue with 140 stress (text) wl send u a full statement outlining my position and let's hope u publish it #Nigeria
This article is not meant to be a commentary on pastors or religious practise in Nigeria; this is simply about looking at the legality of SR’s actions on the day in question. Towards this I will look at our constitution and also the laws in the western world, the so called bastions of freedom and democracy. I am not a lawyer but it is my hope that this discussion would enrich discussions around privacy in Nigeria.
MFM is a dully registered body in Nigeria as a legal entity; this means it has to be treated as a natural person. MFM also owns or rents the land on which the church SR TV crew visited on the crossover night. This means MFM can restrict access to it if they so which. Even though they offer church services to which members of the public are invited to, they can withdraw that invitation if they so wish. MFM would be well within their right to eject anybody just like I can tell anybody who is sitting in my lounge to leave if they have overstayed their welcome. The law guarantees me this right be it in Nigeria, US, UK or any country. It is for this reason that the agents of the Government would require a warrant to come onto my property. There are times and situations when such a right guaranteed by state can be withdrawn in the interest of national security, in the US this can be done using the Patriot Act 2001, in UK the Anti-Terrorism Crime & Security Act2001. In Nigeria only an Act of the Federation seeking to protect public safety can supersede the rights to privacy of the individual as stated in sections 37,38,39,40 and 41 of the Constitution
SR, according to their report, and also from Mr Sowore’s tweet above, were invited to this event, what was not made clear was if this invitation included the right to film the church service. It is important to state here that the church service itself in the eyes of the law is an Intellectual Property (IP) that is protected by copyright in various countries. It is this right that enables organisations like FIFA, Olympics, MTV or Grammy Awards organisers etc to control the filming of their events via accreditations or even sell the coverage rights. Back to story at hand. From the voices in the video it is not quite clear if SR were given the right to record the event. I doubt because at 03:38 of the video, they were challenged also at 06:54 a MFM officially clearly stated SR needed his consent before you can “film my event”. MFM, as represented, by that official were 100% correct. The church service is an IP protected by copyright law and they have a right to stop an unlawful coverage of it. This is why video and music piracy is considered illegal. Even if SR were initially granted the right to cover the event, at 03:38 of the video they were told to stop filming. The response of “I am a reporter” at 03:40 of the video was not enough answer. When asked by MFM to delete the footage, SR refused saying at 05:17 “we won’t delete anything”.
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What SR had on their video camera was an IP owned by MFM. Imagine a situation where you walked into Shoprite and you helped yourself to say a packet of chocolate without paying and when asked to return the item by security you refuse. Forget Shoprite, imagine going to your local suya seller and helping yourself to some sticks of suya and when asked to pay you say refuse and you say “I am a reporter”. Chances are that you would become a suya of some sort! Were MFM within their rights to use reasonable means to claim back their Intellectual Property? Absolutely!
Individual privacy in an ever shrinking world is of great concern to most people and countries in the world. At one time in Germany the authorities sent out pictures of driver and front seat passenger of any vehicle that triggered speed cameras. This is no longer allowed as this is regarded an invasion of the individual’s right to privacy. A person having an affair they want kept private could be outted by such a picture. How does such a man explain a woman sitting in the front seat of his car at a time he was meant to be having a late meeting with his boss in the office? It is no surprise Germany stopped such a practise. Did SR confirm with the woman at 02:33 of the video if she wanted to be identified by the public? This video could potentially cause her problems with her husband if she were married and the man is dead set against MFM. This are the sort of ethical issues, aside the legal ones, SR did not consider before releasing the video. Google were hammered because their street view pictures identified people and car registrations and hence why they have now been blotted out.
Mr. Sowore’s quoting UHDR-19 as a defence for his actions is frankly ridiculous. This cannot supersede our Constitution or that of any country for that matter. I cannot because Article 19 of the UHDR walk into a man’s house and violate his privacy neither can I go into St Paul’s Cathedral in London and start filming without their consent. There is no legal basis for SR’s actions at MFM; some of the contents of the video in my humble opinion are outright slander. How was the coverage of that event by SR in the public interest or defence of national security? I don’t need to hear from MFM to know SR behaved like a typical playground bully.
Lets look at SR labelling of MFM security as thugs. That, against the backdrop of the killings of Pastors and other Clerics by Boko Haram, is disappointing. In the last one year, Boko Haram has attacked countless churches and killed hundreds of church members and Pastors. A simple Google query on this would bear me out. Five years ago, nobody would have believed Nigerians would become suicide bombers and everybody was lax about security. What is the guarantee that Bojko Haram cannot strike in the south of the country? Don’t wave that aside. MFM has simply done what any reasonable organisation would in the prevailing circumstances by having security guards. Calling them thugs won’t change the reality on the ground. Even the police in Nigeria have gone out of their way to encourage people and places of worship to beef up security. Did MFM overstep their bound by detaining SR crew as claimed by SR? That is open to interpretation
Mr Sowore’s defence as shown above does not cut the mustard in my opinion. His use of graphics in the video was meant to ridicule MFM members shown.
Everybody knows most churches in Nigeria frown at cowrie shells, there is nothing new there. I personally love things “ethnic” I have worn bracelets with cowrie shells before, I sometimes wear beads into client meetings and this has elicited positive comments from foreigners I interact with. Items such as beads for me symbolise my background and nothing religious in them but this is not a view shared by many Nigerians who have a rabid hatred for anything cultural and view them as symbols of idolatry. MFM are entitled to their opinion and they did not go public with their view on this, it was expressed within the bounds of their property and it was SR that broadcast this view and I don’t see how Mr. Sowore can complain here.
SR has published stories exposing corruption and impunity in governance and we will forever be grateful to them for that. But on this occasion SR are guilty of the sort of impunity they have on several occasions accused politicians of. It was unspoken but the message was clear. Who are you? Do you know who you are dealing with? Don’t you know me? That was the body language of Mr Sowore and SR on that day. Like we say back home, if you point one finger at somebody, you have four pointing back at you. The finger of blame in this whole wahala is firmly pointing at SR.
[email protected] / Twitter handle: @Naijawatch
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