Worldwide, fresh agenda is being set for the media and its workers to make sure their works and engagements prove successful in the New Year. For instance, the challenge for the media worldwide is majorly on how to use the Internet and other modern media forms and technology to impact positively on human society, without breaching rights or causing confusion.
This thinking became more instructive with recent developments in the information superhighway, the Internet, such as Julian Assange has brought to the fore with his Wikileaks. It brings with it the major challenge of determining the dividing line between free speech and freedom of information on one hand, and protection of government secrets and diplomatic secrets on the other.
Taken from another angle, many international commentators believe the development calls for urgent defining or redefining what the media is in the light of the Internet and other new communication forms.
However, in Nigeria the challenges are different and peculiar that the agenda being set for the media and its workers are equally dissimilar and uncharacteristic.
The greatest consensus that was discovered was that 2011 as an election year is an important year that the media must set its sights on making the election a success by transparently maintaining a high sense of objectivity. The consensus comes with the conviction that as an election year, it is also a trying year, both for the nation as well as for the media. Many analysts and commentators have this understanding because, according to them, the failure of the nation in the election would translate to a failure for the media.
According to Ken Ugbechie, a media consultant and former editor of Daily Times, “It is the media that make or mar elections.” As a result, he advises media practitioners to ensure that none of the candidates of the election, no matter how highly placed, is given undue preference over the others, both in the build-up to the elections, the election proper and the post election management.
There is also a consensus that the media must put politicians on their toes by making sure that the three component parts of elections – the pre-election (electioneering and preparations, election proper, and post election management (collation of results and reconciling the results with the electoral commission’s results) are well covered, and made to function effectively.
Ugbechie agrees with the view that the media should be proactive in all the three stages of the election as stated above. For instance, the holds the view that the media must make sure that election results at every polling centre are obtained first-hand, collated and matched with whatever results the electoral commission would declare, and also be ready to make available the results in case of legal contestations after the election.
Findings have shown also that the major challenge for the practice of journalism in the country comes in the form of ensuring security and safety of media workers and their families; the welfare of the average journalist in terms of salaries, accommodation, transportation, allowances etc, and the growth of the average journalists in terms of training retraining, and the growth of the profession in terms of quality of it outputs and products.
On the issues of security, there is the consensus amongst practising journalists and veterans alike, that the journalist in 2011 must operate with a mindset that the profession is a hazardous one, which comes as a result of its special position in the country.
Richard Akinnola, a seasoned journalist and media consultant, is one of many top journalists that hold such a view. In an interaction, he explained that by virtue of the special position the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria places on the media and journalists, it becomes necessary that every journalist who hopes to operate successfully in the New Year should bear this in mind.
In his words: “The starting point is for every journalist to realise that journalism has its professional ups and downs. Many people in government have many secrets, and none of them want their secrets to be exposed, and by the special job they (journalists) do, they are saddled with the responsibility of exposing these secrets.”
There are a great number of communication scholars who hold similar position with Akinnola. They hinge their positions on the requirements of Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution, which establishes the responsibility of the media and states that “The press: radio, television and other agencies of the mass media to, at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this Chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people.”
However, arguing that the constitutional requirements were not enough for the media to succeed, Ayode Longe, Senior Programmes Officer of Media Rights Agenda (MRA) held in an article on the subject held that, “Though Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria compels the press: radio, television and other agencies of the mass media to hold government(s) accountable to the fundamental objectives of the constitution, that it is not open to the same wide interpretation as the First Amendment to the American Constitution. He also held that that section of the constitution was not justice-able.
He then argued further that journalists or lawyers could not cite it or any provision of the Chapter as defence in litigations in matters pertaining to publication or broadcasts. He added that though the provision gave the media the responsibility of holding government(s) accountable to the people, it neither empowered nor protected the media to discharge that duty.
As remedy to issues of insecurity to the journalist, Akinnola explained that his position on the issue should not be construed to mean that a journalist should fail to take precautions in the discharge of his duties. Other respondents who held similar view stated that a situation where a journalist uses his phone to direct his killers to his whereabouts should not obtain in the New Year. They counsel that journalists should in fact seek ways of obtaining short training courses on safety and security, so that they will have a mindset of security and security consciousness.
One other matter the journalist must consider critical and a challenge to its profession in 2011 has been identified as Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill. The bill is the longest in the nation’s legislative history, which though is not a media bill, has been identified as one, which would help the media perform its function better. Longe, whose MRI has been in the forefront of the struggle to have the bill passed into law believes that the current National Assembly, and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, did great disservice to the country and its people by standing against the bill.
He however called on individual states, to lead by example, by doing their best in passing the bill in their individual states. He commended the Lagos State House of Assembly, which has commenced action to pass the bill in their state. He hoped other states would tow that part.
Many believe that if the bill had been passed into law, that the huge amount of funds being appropriated for the National Assembly would not have been possible. On the other hand, other saw such condemnable act by the National Assembly as the only reason they have stalled passage of the bill.
The welfare of journalists is another area where journalists and analysts believe the media must work on assiduously if they must succeed in the coming year. Instructively, many media houses owe salaries and allowances up to nine months in arrears, and the belief is that the media would not succeed with such huge debts. There is also a consensus amongst journalists that a lot of their executives and members have compromised to politicians as a result of the inability of their organisations to cater for their welfare. They believe also that the media will continue to lose its integrity before ordinary citizens who see them as having sold out to the highest bidder.
Similar to this is the belief that, apart from the fact that the cost of purchasing, for instance newspapers and magazines have gone out of the hand of the ordinary people, the media is no longer populists in its choice of stories, because it has alienated the ordinary Nigerian from its reportage. Holders of this belief identify the huge attempt at pandering to the desires of top politicians and advertising companies, having taking the attention of the media to developmental issues that affect the people directly. Some advance the view that increasing copy sales would be a way of bringing the people back to believing in the media. One of the ways this school of thought advanced for increasing copy sales would be to find ways of reducing the cover price of newspapers and magazines. Another would be to address or highlight issues that the ordinary man in the street can identify with, rather than issues that are elitist and bear no direct meaning with the day-to-day life of the average Nigerian. They give example with the issue of budgeting and spending, which usually run into billions and millions of naira, and which at the end of the day, do not have any direct impact on the average man in the street.
Media owners and managers are therefore advised that one issue that would go a long way in settling the issue of insecurity and welfare of journalists would be that of insurance package for the average journalist. The belief is that this would reassure the journalist that his future is secured as well as cater for his family in case of any misfortune befalling him.
There is also the issue of training and retraining. Akinnola believes that media houses have abandoned their workers in terms of training, and called for a change of heart. He explained that what is prevalent in the media is self-development by the average media practitioner, without their organisation lending any hand in that regard. There are journalists who believe that a lot of international courses are available and could be made possible if only media managers would develop some interests and make contacts for them. Those who hold this view speak of many international bodies, training institutions, and even governments, which could help in facilitating media courses for Nigerian workers for little or no cost at all.
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