The President, Nigerian Union of Journalists, Mr Waheed Odusile, has called on the Nigerian government to make laws that will ensure true press freedom in the country.
Odusile made the call yesterday during a radio interview while responding to a question as to whether press freedom is being observed in Nigeria.
“The enabling law is not there yet for the press to be truly free. So we need some laws to that effect and that is the responsibility of the government towards ensuring that the press is not limited in terms of access to vital information,” he said.
According to him, having freedom of information laws as is the case now for people generally to be able to access information is good, but it will be better for the practice if press freedom in particular is also provided for in the legislation.
He explained that, contrary to the fears being expressed in many quarters, having press freedom legislation does not translate to journalism without control or boundary as the code of ethics of the profession is there to check any cases of excesses on the part of practitioners.
He however lamented that owing to the insufficient legislation the Nigerian Press Council which is supposed to enforce the code of ethics is left helpless like a lame duck.
On why the ‘Brown Envelope’ journalism is prevalent in the country, the NUJ President said it is so because most journalists are owe salaries or underpaid, let alone being giving allowances, by their employers, and as such many a journalist is tempted to throw the professional ethics to the dogs in the event of an offer.
He however said the union was working towards addressing the myriad of challenges facing the industry, adding that arrangements are being made to resume presentation of awards to outstanding journalists beginning from the end of this year.
By Sunday Adah, Abuja
