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| Dr. Tonnie Iredia |
FROM a former Director of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) yesterday came a damning verdict: there is no press freedom in Nigeria.
Dr. Tonnie Iredia made this assertion in Abuja while delivering a lecture entitled: “The Freedom of the Press and the Law” at a media lunch with education correspondents.
According to Iredia ,”There is no freedom of the press in Nigeria and quite a lot of people do not understand that. I thought the cap word should be freedom and not law. Most of us think that we are free because issues have not been tested in court.”
“So, to this end journalists must be very sure of what they report,” he advised.
Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC) Prof. Julius Okojie at the forum tasked journalists to observe strictly the ethics of the profession in the discharge of their duty.
Okojie, who stressed that reporters who report accurately earn good name for themselves, said, “you have the freedom to report the truth and I always tell people that the pen is mightier than the sword but truth is mightier than the pen itself because when you say the truth as a journalist you earn a reputation to yourself.”
Continuing, Okojie also urged journalists to leverage on the freedom of media in the country to discharge their duty appropriately.
According to him: “There is a freedom of speech to a large extent in the country for there is no doubt about it.”
“The freedom you have is to a large extent within the law of the land itself,” he added.
The NUC Executive Secretary urged the media chiefs to keep their reporters long in their beat in order to ensure that they master their beat very well.
“So, we are appealing to your editors that they should leave you long in your beat so that you understand who you are reporting on very well,” he said.
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