Nigeria’s first female professor of Mass Communication and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Paul University, Awka, Prof. Stella Okunna, has harped on the need for journalists to aspire to keep to ethical practices.
Okunna spoke during a section on credible reporting of election matters at the 18th All Nigeria Editors conference with the theme “2023: Political landscape, credible elections and the role of editors.”
She advised practicing journalists to eschew all activities and tendencies to push out to the public unverified news stories, stressing that such are capable of creating confusion and impinging on the integrity of the journalism profession.
She stressed the need for constant training and retraining or journalists as the only panacea to curbing unobjective reporting, adding that journalists should strive at all times to ensure objectivity in their news reports.
The Editor-in-Chief/CEO of the Guardian Newspapers, Mr Martin Oloja, has harped on the need for financial independence for free, fair and objective journalism.
According to him, loss of financial independence was impeding the effectiveness of the media in monitoring the activities of politicians, especially if they relied on them for sponsorship.
According to Oloja, this severely limits the press in playing it social responsibility roles, as well as reduce accountability on the part of the political class.
He said that, “the biggest advertisers are those who we are expected to hold accountable and because proprietors are interested in the survival of their medium, this role is often cast aside.”
He noted that the expectation of the publics of the media’s have not changed, stressing that “objectivity, fairness and factual reports remained the watchword”.
Also speaking, the Managing-Director of the Sun Newspapers, Mr Onuoha Uke, explained that the media has the responsibility of setting the agenda as the general elections approached, noting that editors should be given room to play their roles as key stakeholders in the struggle for good governance by ensuring independence of the press is not compromised.
Uke called for security, free access to election venues and collation centres to ensure transparency and accurate reportage of the entire electoral process.
“The media has played major roles in democracy and has been in the forefront in demanding good governance right from before Nigeria gained independence.
“Journalists have set the pace and been in charge of moulding public opinion and response to topical issues and the present is an auspicious time for setting agenda to fulfill our responsibility of ensuring democracy survives,” Uke said.
Also, the Publisher of Real News Magazine, Ms. Maureen Chigbo, highlighted the need to ensure that proper information gets across to the public for informed decisions, adding that there is the need for the media to go all out to verify every fact before publishing particularly before, during and after the elections.
Chigbo, equally urged the public to check the facts and rely on verified media houses and practitioners for accurate reports.
According to her, pointers to false news are on unregistered media and blogs being run by nin-professionals, stressing that theit news reports are often inconsistent, repetitive and poorly scripted and warned against reposting of such reports by the public.
“Information is power and it is my hope that the public has access to true information to
“Because of this, the media should ensure balance and objectivity in their reports and stick to the ethics of the profession to help build a progressive society,” she added.
