Polls: Partisan journalists should quit –NUJ chairman

Comrade Emmanuel Ogbeche is the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Federal Capital Territory (FCT) council. In this interview with TOPE SUNDAY he speaks on the recent invasion of Media Trust, and forthcoming general elections among other issues.

Media Trust Invasion

It is unfortunate that a trusted and reliable media outfit like Daily Trust could be invaded with almost twenty years of democracy and we still have to face such many a siege by the military. I am persuaded to say that it is unfortunate, but my happiness is that both parties seem to have reached some sort of understanding. Ordinarily, what the military was supposed to do was to invite the reporter of the newspaper, rather than invading four different locations in Maiduguri, Abuja, Kaduna and Lagos. That was designed to intimidate, cripple the businesses of the newspaper.

It is very dangerous now that elections are around the corner. It is very dangerous now that journalists are living in fear in an environment of uncertainty, in an environment where they believe they can be easily harassed, picked up and boxed into a corner. It is unfortunate, but going forward, I think lessons have been learnt.

Professionalism vs partisanship

For us here in the FCT, professionalism remains a cardinal objective. When we came into office, we promised that there will be a lot of training and retraining of our members. I agree that it has not been all rosy. There have been some partisanship slants in some instances we have even religious biases, which ought not to be. That does not detract us from the fact that majority of our journalists are  objective and unbalanced in their reportage. What we have tried to do is to engage more robustly with our colleagues.

As a journalist, you can hold political opinions, but that should not inform your reportage or coverage of political parties. No matter how liberal you think you are, when you begin to initiate yourself with ideals and polices of political parties, my advice is that you should rather resign your office and resign your position as a journalist and become a full time politician.

Your primary responsibility to the people is to present the facts as they are and not to infuse it with your own biases. Even though we  have one or two culpable newspapers in the country, I think it is a matter we take seriously.  We will continue to hold refresher courses for our colleagues to ensure that partisan views are kept personal and should not in any way reflect in your reportage or coverage of any political parties.

Off record scandals

It is reprehensible for revelations to be made for pecuniary reasons and the ministers involved did not make any report to the NUJ as it were, probably reports were made to the Nigerian Press Council. For us in NUJ FCT Council, we find it very troubling when you cannot take a journalist into confidence anymore, because of the misdemeanour of some of our colleagues. We encourage public officers to make complaints to the council. FCT NUJ takes discipline so seriously that the only committee recognised in its constitution is the Ethics and   Disciplinary Committee. So, when a public official makes a report and we look at it objectively, then we can intervene in that matter.

For our colleagues, once a professional matter is under your purview and they say off record, it should be off record. I think the persons responsible for what has happened should face appropriate  sanctions.

Intimidation of media houses

If you look carefully at the history of this country, it is difficult to single out any government that has not committed infractions against the media as it were. If this government were to go by the way of previous governments, one will not be entirely surprised because we can count so many infractions under this administration. Perhaps, not by the federal government per se, but by state governments, and by different individuals who now feel that the environment is conducive to abuse the privileges that journalists enjoy in this country. But, we are barely two weeks to the election and if the way the government responded quickly to the siege in Daily Trust by asking the military personnel deployed to the four locations to vacate the premises, then there is hope that the government will not commit infractions to journalists before, during and after the elections.

My warning stems from the fact that, in Osun, we saw that some journalists were brutalized and were not permitted to go to some areas. They were blocked on the way and prevented from going to some local government areas. If one were to go by history, then the fear will subsist that the media could become easy target. You must also take into cognizance that it is not only the state that is responsible for the abuse of the media.

We have non- state actors that can leverage under the atmosphere of fear, harassment and intimidation which if allowed to continue and seize upon the opportunity to also commit atrocities against the media and journalists. I am optimistic that it will not happen because it is a constitutional guarantee that the media should hold government and its agents accountable to the people and all eyes is on Nigeria presently. I don’t think government will overly go against the media.

Advice to journalists

My message remains, report to stay alive. There is no news that is greater than your life. You must report to stay alive. When a situation becomes very dangerous, hostile to your personal safety and liberty, our advice to FCT journalists is to leave any hostile area.

If you don’t leave to tell the story, you will become a story. It is our prayer that no journalist will be part of the story. Journalists’ safety is very key. Our colleagues should be wary and be in control.

Safety in face of violence

You lie low. You backtrack. Ensure that your safety is paramount. If it means for you to disguise yourself for you to move freely, it is advised you do that.

Achievements so far

We are about two months into office now. Since then, we have doneappreciably well, according to what our colleagues are saying. When wecame on board, we found a system that was very weak, backlog of salaries as it were. We found stakeholders that were no longer comfortable about the role of the NUJ. So far so good, we have met with very critical stakeholders here in the FCT. We are building confidence and synergizing with various organizations, both private and public agencies. Even our building that was in contention with a certain bank, we have it back. We have reached out to a lot of our colleagues. Very soon, we will be holding our congress to inform our colleagues what we have done and our broad plan for the union.

We met security agencies, DSS, Police, Civil Defense and we are still meeting others. We are optimistic that going forward we will achieve the

mandate of the fresh start, which is to bring professionalism, engender solidarity and promote the welfare of our members. With the cooperation of journalists in the FCT, we are very sure that the NUJ will experience a fresh start.

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