Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) has expressed concern over what it described as bias reportage capable of destabilizing the country by some of its members.
Deputy National President of NUJ, Alhaji Muktar Gidado, disclosed this in Bauchi on Tuesday, during a three-day training organised by the
Bauchi State Council of NUJ in collaboration with Abubakar Tatari
Polytechnic (ATAP), Bauchi.
Gidado, who was the Guest Speaker at the event, expressed worry that bias reportage was bringing dishonour to journalism.
He said: “As we play our watchdog roles to the society, we ought to be above board in our thinking and conduct. This is because the press are also being watched by the larger society.”
The NUJ deputy national president further lamented, “Some colleagues have
deliberately chosen inglorious path of dishonour to bastardise our
Profession; destabilise our nation and put our profession to question for selfish motives.”
He said that journalists ought to be “true reformers not inflamers or
associated with mischief.”
According to him, the world has turned a global village hence better
understanding and stability of journalism means the “stability of the Nigerian nation, and as we all know, stability breeds peace, progress,
accelerated development and freedom.”
The NUJ deputy president called on journalists to shun bias reporting of events, saying it was an evil wind that would do no one any good and advised journalists to remain steadfast in their profession.
Gidado said that in line with the decision of the National Executive
Council, the union was on the process of identifying genuine members across the country.
“We will soon publish a compendium of duly registered and certified
journalists and the validation/ bio-metric of membership will be conducted soon,” he disclosed.
He commended ATAP for collaborating with NUJ to train journalists in the state.
He also commended the state council under the leadership of Mallam Goje for being proactive by coming up with the initiative to organise
the training.
He assured: “On our own part as national officers, we are resolute, committed and determine to support councils and chapels that
are passionate and desirous to improve the status and capacity of our
members so that we can have an improved press that will always be seen to be objective, balance, decent accurate while dealing with larger audience”
In his address, the NUJ Chairman, Ibrahim Mallam
Goje, expressed gratitude to the rector of ATAP, Dr Sulieman Lame, for
providing the venue, manpower, facilities and feeding for the
training.
Goje said that the training was organised to fulfil the promise made to the journalists in the state during his campaign.
The NUJ chairman explained that the training would cover word
processing, social media and networking, internet and how to start a blog, the role of ICT in modern journalism among others.
“These are key components as far as journalism is concerned. The council sat with the organisers and agreed on the topics and hoped the participants would use the training to improve their ICT skills for the advancement of their practice and the profession,” he said.
