Former Head of Department of Mass Communication at the University of Jos, Assoc. Prof. Taye Obateru, has charged Nigerian journalists to uphold the ethics of their profession.
Obateru gave the charge on Thursday in Abuja at the public presentation of a book he co-authored along other eminent scholars from various mass media specialisations.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the title of the 162-page book is “Media and Nigeria’s Constitutional Democracy: Civil Space, Free Speech and the Battle for the Freedom of the Press”.
Speaking as a panelist at the event, the don said it is incumbent on Nigerian journalists to play the game (journalism) by the rules as obtainable in other professions.
He said journalists should be mindful of their conducts as custodians of public interest, while also desisting from rushing to publish stories without adequate background check and balancing of perspectives.
He said, “As argued in one of the chapters of this book, ethics is very key to any profession. If we can’t uphold the ethics of any profession, then there is no basis for practising the profession itself.
“If we want to be journalists who should be respected, we must be ethical. To the extent that it could be said that we have done what we need to do in terms of carrying out our work.”
Obateru recommended his recently published book entitled, ‘Brown Envelope and News Media Practice in Nigeria’ as a guide to journalism students, practitioners and various democracy stakeholders in charting a new course for upholding the ethics of the profession which has was part of close to three decades before going to academia.
Also, Mr Joe Bankole, a former Managing Editor of NAN said the book explored aspects of Nigeria’s constitutional democracy in terms of practice, constraints especially as journalists and media professionals are concerned.
He explained that it also explored how government muscles the media with a view to controlling it.
“I feel privileged to be part of this important work which is well-researched.
