ABUJA – Mr Edem Duke, Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, on Friday called on journalists covering the ongoing National Conference to report issues with objectivity, balance and fairness.
Duke gave the advice in Abuja at a one-day media roundtable on reporting the National Conference.
He said the media had a professional and ethical responsibility to report issues at the conference objectively and fairly.
According to him, if arguments, debates and other issues are not reported professionally, they are capable of sending wrong signals to the world.
Duke said that fairness and objectivity remained the hallmark of the media and as such Nigerian journalists must promote the values that unite the people.
The minister said that the success of the National Conference depended on the media.
“I salute the courage and the resilience of the media, especially on the enthronement of democracy but the success of the National Conference is imperative to the country,” he said.
The Director General of National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr Mike Omeri, said that to achieve the objective of the conference, the media was critical as it was a link between the people and the government.
Omeri said that the ethics of journalism placed a huge burden on the media, not only to hold the people’s representatives accountable but providing objective, balance and fair reportage.
He said that the media had a strong and inalienable role to play in building and sustaining a viable and egalitarian society.
Omeri said that it was necessary to re-emphasise to the media the need for patriotic agenda setting and promotion of national interest in their reportage of proceeding at the conference.
He further said that the objective of the conference was to promote unity, cohesion and integration of Nigeria and that the media was critical to realising the objective.
In his remark, Mr Shola Atere, an Executive Director of Nigeria Television Authority, urged journalists to be professional and dedicated to their work in order to earn the respect of the public.
He advised journalists to update their knowledge to effectively perform their work. (NAN)
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