Kaduna – Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State has called on journalists in the state to abide always by the ethics of the profession through balanced and objective reporting.
Governor el-Rufai who spoke at the weekend during the official opening of the Correspondents’ Chapel Office and Launch of its Compendium of members at the secretariat of the Chapel in Kaduna, said the call said had become imperative to avoid misinforming the public.
The governor who was represented by Mr. Samuel Aruwan, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, reiterated the importance of media to the society and socio-economic development of the country
He said, “The Media is important and inevitable in our quest to build a strong nation. But we should not abuse the privilege of being the practitioners.”
He advised media persons in public service to be careful so that their practising colleagues would not abuse them.
He also cautioned, “The fact that you are a journalist does not give you immunity to write or do anything you like. As good as media is, it is unfortunate that today, people sit at their comfort zones and fabricate stories and when they are being queried, they bring in all manners of excuses including religion and ethnicity in an attempt to protect their act.
“We must separate hatred, personal things in what we do. We in Kaduna State will not clamp down on the media. We have never done that,” he stated.
“The future of the country lies with media. If anything goes wrong in the country and state, the media should be ready for the role it plays. We must do our work professionally in the interest of the country and the states we work in,” el-Rufai stressed.
“The media is so important because it has the power to change society. The media has the power to make or mar society, so such the power should not be abused,” he stated.
Comrade Adamu Yusuf, Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kaduna State Council, in an address urged practitioners to devote their time and energy always to development reporting.
Yusuf, while assuring members of the support of the council towards the chapel, said, “We will continue to support our members financially and morally to make sure that journalism profession is free from quacks.
“We must commend the efforts of the executive members of this chapel for launching its compendium, the full names and pictures of their members will complement the efforts of the state and the national body of NUJ to fish out quacks among us and help to sanitise the system,” he said.
“Few of the obligations of journalism if I am to remind you are truth, objectivity, balance and social responsibility to the state, country and the world in general,” Yusuf added.
Comrade Midat Joseph, Chairman of the Correspondents Chapel, in his opening remarks, assured the public of the Correspondents Chapel’s readiness to partner with established lawful agencies in Kaduna State, saying that, they were the news makers of the society.
One-minute silence was observed for the late Comrade Imam Dalhatu Imam, S. A. Media to Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State, who died in the early hours of Friday.
The late Imam who started his practice in Kaduna was expected as a Special Guest at the event.
The post El-Rufai Tasks Journalists On Objectivity, Balanced Reporting appeared first on Independent Newspapers Nigeria.
Source: Daily Independent
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El-Rufai Tasks Journalists On Objectivity, Balanced Reporting
Description : Kaduna – Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State has called on journalists in the state to abide always by the ethics of the profession th...
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