- says a truly free and vibrant press is more powerful than the 3 traditional arms of government combined!
Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has called on journalists to be responsible, ethical and professional in the discharge of their duties as pressmen.
Bello made the call while delivering his welcome address at the opening session of the Nigerian Media Merit Awards (NMMA) 2021 in Lokoja, the Kogi state capital, on Friday.
The Governor decried irresponsible practice of journalism by quacks who use of the tools of the journalist’s trade to deal in hate speech and fake news.
He called on journalists to take back their profession from quacks and the hacks, specifically the myriad of unregulated persons armed with internet-enabled devices who haunt the media space.
“Lives and whole societies have been ruined by the irresponsible practice of journalism by media practitioners, or quacks who impersonate them. The use of the tools of the journalist’s trade to deal in hate speech has set off many a fire which ultimately consumed whole politics and their people.
“Fake news is ubiquitous nowadays, whether it is rumour-mongering, dangerous innuendo, character assassination or other forms of inaccurate reportage. The problem is so endemic that in Q3 2020 alone, statistics show there were 1.8 billion engagements with fake news on Facebook alone! Nigeria, like many countries, has fallen victim to it many times, sometimes with devastating loss of lives or properties.
“Practitioners must recognise that due to the incredible powers which society has entrusted to them, there is a corresponding demand for responsibility, ethics and professionalism in the exercise of those powers by journalists.
“Necessity is therefore laid on the real journalists to stand up and be counted when it comes to taking back their profession from the quacks and the hacks, specifically the myriad of unregulated persons armed with Internet-enabled devices who haunt the media space, especially on social media. These malicious persons wreck lives and reputations by the millions simply because someone paid them, or because they have real or imagined grouse against an individual or institution. Worse, they proceed without a care in the world because no one regulates them.
This is why the Nigerian Media Merit Awards (NMMA) Trust is perhaps one of the most important institutions which could exist right now. By rewarding merit in the way individuals and media houses practice journalism, the NMMA provide critical motivation for the real journalists to do their work professionally,” he said.
Bello stated that NMMAs will help to promote sanity in the industry and simultaneously function as an accountability partner for most professional journalists.
He described Press as one of the inescapable hallmarks of modern society and in particular, the custodian of public perception.
Governor Bello posited that a truly free and vibrant press is more powerful than the 3 traditional arms of government combined.
“Modern society cannot do without journalists. In fact, the world would be a scary and dark place without the mavens who collect, curate and communicate information in a timely and responsible manner. In so doing they dispel falsehood, eliminate dangerous assumptions and provide societies with the basic premises upon which governance and other decisions can be made. This helps to bring order to society and engender human cooperation.”
