…Demand that media must remain unfettered for sustainable development
By Simeon Mpamugoh
It was a one-day meeting of minds that sought to enhance freedom of the press as an essential condition for a successful democracy.
Organised by Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti Center for Constitutional Governance (CCG) and sponsored by the United States Consulate-General in Lagos, the summit held recently at the Lagos Travel Inn, Toyin Street, Ikeja, Lagos. It also evaluated free press and available frameworks on freedom of the press with recommendations for improvements.
The occasion was chaired by Prof Lai Oso, Dean, School of Communication, Lagos State University, (LASU) Ojo. In his keynote address “Enhancing Journalism and press freedom in Nigeria” charged the media to perform their constitutional role of providing Nigerians with information they needed to form ideas of what was going on around them.
The don said: “For the press to perform its role effectively, it must be independent and autonomous especially from the state itself. Some countries have provided legal instruments to protect the freedom of the press and a classical example normally, is the United States, as part of its first amendments to its constitution guaranteeing that nobody would do anything that would hamper the press from performing its daily roles in the society.”
He defined freedom of the press as absence of prior restraint on publications adding that “nobody has the right to censure the press; however, there is no freedom without restraints. Man is free but there will always be a chain; so press freedom is what we must fight for,” he enthused.
In his paper entitled “An appraisal of Press Freedom in Nigeria: The Government; the Press and Institutional Frameworks,” Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda, Edetaen Ojo, identified government and the media as key democratic institutions in the Constitution which oversaw the functioning of our democracy, adding that under the same Constitution, government consists of the legislature, executive and the judiciary.
He wondered whether media freedom and independence were part of the legal, institutional and operational frameworks, adding that the press: radio, television and other agencies of the mass media were at all times free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in Chapter Two of the Nigerian constitution.
He observed that media freedom and independence were not yet in the legal frameworks as indicated in the fact that the vast majority of media outlets, especially in the broadcast sector, was owned and controlled by governments: federal, state and local. “With these media outlets largely serving as the propaganda arms of governments which established and control them, they lack the capacity to hold the same governments accountable to the people,” the MRA boss reasoned.
Appraising the legal environment of press freedom in Nigeria, a legal practitioner, Jude Igbanoi, wondered if Nigerian press was free and guaranteed. He noted that the real struggle for press freedom began with the agitation for independence and self rule, after the World War 11 in the late 40s and early 50s.
He pointed out that despite the struggle spearheaded by Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ernest Ikoli, Obafemi Awolowo, Anthony Enahoro, Dutse Mohammed Ali, Mokwugo Okoye who were either newspaper publishers or columnists, it was sad to note that the narrative had not changed even after so many decades.
He said that the Nigerian media were largely unregulated noting that the saddest development in the quest for a free press in Nigeria was the fact the very press, which everyone sought to unshackle was itself unregulated.
An associate professor in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika, in her paper titled Journalism in Nigeria in the age of new and Social Media: Challenges and Prospects, defined Journalism from American Press Institute point of view when he said that, “it is ‘the activity of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information,’ while the New Media, see it as ‘a phrase used to describe content available on-demand through the Internet.’”
She observed that journalism in the age of new and social media had changed the media and journalism practice landscape adding that with the new media, a whole new platform for the dissemination of news and information within minutes had been created, adding that it offered a host of creative ways for journalists to appeal to their audiences easier and faster as well as enhance the impact of their stories and reporting.
Ogwezzy-Ndisika revealed that the new media has mortally wounded the financial structure of the news business such that the cost of doing, challenging independent reporting had become all but prohibitive. “It has blurred the line between opinion and fact and created a dynamic in which extreme thought flourishes while balanced judgment is imperilled,” she said.
She noted that journalism would outlast technology, advising that in order to attend to the constant demand for information and keep audiences and readers interested in their products, journalists must connect to consumers in new ways more frequently with current, accurate, balanced, verified and pluralistic information, which were fundamental to journalism.
Managing Editor, The Nation newspaper online, Lekan Otufundurin, who spoke on Press Freedom Online in the age of social media in Nigeria, spotted the experience the online media has afforded in the 21st Century Information Communication Technology (ICT) adding that “it has spurred millions of people for social mobilisation just with a tab on the computer.”
A communiqué signed by the Executive Director, CCG, Dr. Adebowale Balogun, expressed the need for media stakeholders especially the government, press council, Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) to revisit the Nigeria Press Council (NPC) Act through consultation, engagement and consensus building in order to have a negotiated settlement that would lead to acceptable regulatory framework for journalists in the country.
“The frameworks establishing the public media should be revisited so that they can operate independently of government in power while serving as genuine public broadcasters acting in the interest of the public. Nigeria can borrow from the example of Ghana where press freedom is expressly, constitutionally guaranteed and managers of state media are not appointed by government but by an independent National Mass Media Commission, (NMMC).
“The media, including journalists who publish online should continue to operate on journalistic value systems hence news judgment must be based on ethical considerations,” the communiqués read.