Express Freedom, Make Safety a Priority, Journalists Urged

The Centre for Constitutional Governance (CCG) has stressed the need to enhance freedom of press and safety in Nigeria for a better living and working environment in disseminating effective information to the public.

This was the focus of a one-day summit titled ‘Enhancing Press Freedom in Nigeria’ held recently in Lagos, which was sponsored by the United States Consulate-General.

Speaking at the summit, the Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda (MRA) Edetaen Ojo, said the media plays important roles between the government and the general public, argued that the poor state of political and economic development in the country has been the failure to give effect to the fundamental role of freedom of expression, press freedom and access to public information.

He said the constitution within the government, the press and institutional framework must be effective in accordance to serve the society with useful information without manipulation or favouring one side more than the other.

The Legal Adviser, THISDAY Newspaper, Mr. Jude Igbanoi spoke on the legal environment and press freedom in Nigeria, saying the press and its media are not free as they act on the instructions given to them by the government or the people in question. He said the press should be given the right and respect to perform their duties to justify the constitution of the country.

Assistant Prof., Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika spoke on challenges and prospects of Journalism in the new age and social media; while the Managing Editor, The Nation Newspaper (online), Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin focused on the press freedom online in the age of social media in Nigeria, adding that online media has been a fast means of getting information in this new age and creating job opportunities.

The summit aimed to increase media capacity on the mechanism for promoting free press; improve the observance of existing constitutional provisions and code of ethics for journalists for press freedom in Nigeria and to interact with media practitioners on current developments in the industry, while proffering solutions to current challenges.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Journalists’ Safety Initiative with the support of Open Society Foundation also urged the journalists across the world to take safety as the first majority concept in their duties.

This was disclosed at a press conference host by the Nigerian Journalists’ Safety Initiative titled “Safeguarding Press Freedom and Safety of Journalists Almost Rising Conflict” held at the International Press Centre (IPC) in Lagos recently.

Speaking at the conference, representative of the former Chairman of Nigeria Bar Association, Ikeja Branch, Evans Ufeli said in the course of getting and disseminating information to the general public, journalists should ensure safety for their lives because they are surrounded by many hazards and other dangerous environment.

He said journalists’ lives are being threatened despite the fact that they are the principal tools of information dissemination and an advocate for others, leaving their own problem and issues behind them to be solved last.