Al Jazeera Edited My Interview, Cut 20 Minutes — Daniel Bwala

Special adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has accused international broadcaster Al Jazeera of editing his interview and inserting external footage that he said misrepresented what transpired during the discussion.

Bwala made the allegation on Tuesday during an interview with media personality Daddy Freeze, whose real name is Ifedayo Olarinde, in a conversation that aired on Facebook.

Explaining why he decided to address the issue, Bwala said he initially chose to remain silent despite the online reactions to the interview.

He alleged 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.”
“I kept quiet in the past few days because opinions have been expressed and heard,” he said.

“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.”

According to him, the interview with the Qatar-based broadcaster was recorded on February 11 but was 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 said.

Bwala noted that the broadcaster usually airs interviews on its television network before uploading them online, adding that the television broadcast often runs for about an hour while the full version is typically 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,” he explained.

“Unfortunately, my interview was noted as postponed and their excuse was that trending matters around Iran and Israel affected the upload, but they went ahead and aired it on YouTube,” he said.

Bwala, who said he has spent over two decades working 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.

He further addressed claims circulating online that he repeatedly denied answering a question during the interview after a video clip was played.

“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,” Bwala said.

“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.”