Esosa Ekanem is a unique name that originates only from Nigeria, crossing two cultures in Nigeria – the Edo and the Efik cultures. Fatimah Sanni is similarly unique to Nigeria as well, given that Sanni is a Yoruba rendition of an Islamic name. Understanding these will make you see why one is suddenly caught aback listening to a piece of news that aired on your ITV channel about the wonderful breakthrough in battery technology by UK scientists titled “UK scientists create world’s first diamond battery, capable of giving thousands of years of power.”  One is left to wonder when and how Ekanem and Sanni became UK names.

However, one can understand that, in this very fluid world where people are migrating across borders and taking on new nationalities, it is possible that these individuals featured on your channel are truly UK citizens. No one should begrudge that. What is begrudging is the lack of consistency in addressing people who may have dual citizenships. Should they just be taken as citizens of their new countries or should they be affirmed as citizens of both countries? In essence, should these ladies be taken as UK scientists or Nigerian-UK scientists? There is no contending that either approach is acceptable if there is consistency regarding the choice, as used in reporting the news.

So, it becomes shocking to note a news report on your website dated 28 August 2024 titled “Gang jailed for forging marriage documents that allowed illegal living in the UK.” In this news piece, your team had used the statement “The organized crime group, who were all themselves Nigerian, provided false…” to refer to these dual citizens involved in crime.

Given these two instances, one is left with no other option than to conclude that there is media bias in your news reporting. A bias to report good works as UK or Western and not-so-good works as African. This inconsistency in approach to reporting hurts and creates stereotypes that last generations and affect how people are perceived and treated. This media-bias in reporting need to be corrected, and the time to correct this is now.

Doing the right thing is hard, often painful, but it is something that we all have to do when an error has been made. Leadership involves taking difficult decisions, like the one you will have to do here. First, as a go forward plan, it is ideal that you develop an internal policy that addresses the issue of reporting when it comes to people of mixed nationalities with a key element of this policy being a consistent choice of approach to addressing dual-nationals in your news pieces both when they do good or the not-so-good.

Additionally, it would be very helpful to have a written statement on your site apologizing for your past media biases and accepting your decision to eliminate this in reporting going forward.