Bwala Claims Al Jazeera Apologised Privately, says Defamation Suit Underway

Presidential aide Daniel Bwala has said that Al Jazeera privately apologised to him over his appearance on the network’s Head to Head programme with journalist Mehdi Hasan, but declined to issue a public statement acknowledging any wrongdoing.

Speaking during a recent interview published online on Wednesday, Bwala alleged that the broadcaster admitted it should have informed him in advance that his previous criticisms of President Bola Tinubu would form part of the discussion.

According to him, Al Jazeera cited concerns about the credibility of its programming in refusing to make the apology public.

“They apologised to me privately. I said they should put it on social media. They said they will not put it on social media, it will affect their credibility, because it’s not just them, but their other programmers at the Al Jazeera network too,” he said.

Bwala further claimed that the interview, which he said lasted about 90 minutes, was edited in a manner that favoured the presenter, with portions of his responses and exchanges with the audience omitted from the final broadcast.

He also accused the programme of presenting archival clips of his past remarks without providing viewers with sufficient context or allowing him adequate opportunity to respond.

The presidential aide said he subsequently instructed lawyers in the United Kingdom to institute defamation proceedings against the network after his request for a public apology was rejected.

He added that legal advisers had informed him that the circumstances surrounding the broadcast could amount to damage to his reputation. Al Jazeera had not publicly responded to the claims as of press time.