(Adds name of media house and response) ABUJA, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Nigerian security agencies have been investigating "subversive" activities by some foreign correspondents, Information Minister Frank Nweke said on Friday. In a statement mainly devoted to attacking a report on Nigeria by U.S. television station CNN, Nweke denounced what he called "the stereotypical apocalyptic picture some Western media construct of Nigeria and Africa". The report on kidnapping in the Niger Delta, he said, "is another evidence of the subversive activities of some foreign correspondents in Nigeria which the Nigerian security agencies have been investigating". A CNN spokesman in Atlanta said: "We stand by the story and we refute the allegations." Some Nigerian journalists have been arrested in past months over political stories, drawing international criticism, but there have been no recent examples of foreign reporters facing serious problems with the authorities. Two Nigerian journalists were charged with sedition last year for saying the president's new jet was second-hand. Nigeria is preparing for elections in April that should mark the first democratic transition from one civilian government to another. Nweke is the architect of a campaign called "Heart of Africa" that seeks to improve Nigeria's image. The government has bought advertising space on London buses and in underground train stations to display billboards showing glamorous, successful Nigerians. The campaign aims to debunk Nigeria's image abroad as a country blighted by corruption, crime, poverty and inter-communal violence. One of the slogans is "Nigeria. It's not what you think." But such efforts have had to contend with a constant flow of bad news, especially from the Niger Delta, the impoverished wetlands region that accounts for all of Nigeria's oil production. Kidnappings are an almost daily occurrence there. Different armed groups are holding 31 foreigners hostage, thousands of expatriate workers have fled and a fifth of oil production is shut down because of militant attacks. Other Nigerian stories that made international headlines in recent months include a pipeline fire that killed almost 300 people in Lagos, the third major plane crash in 12 months and the first confirmed death from bird flu in sub-Saharan Africa.
