A FRONTLINE JOURNALIST HARPS ON MEDIA INDEPENDENCE/ OBJECTIVITY- Evans Tubonah

Kola Oredipe from right, with Evans Tubonah left

The Chairman of the Federated Chapel of Nigerian Union of Journalists, Bayelsa State, Comrade Kola Oredipe has called on media practitioners to hold tenaciously to  the professional tenets of independence and objectivity.
Comrade Oredipe, who is the Sub-Editor with Radio Nigeria in Bayelsa State, made the call while exchanging vies with the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Golden Pen Newspaper, Chief Otonye Evans Tubonah who visited him in his office, in Yenagoa.
Looking critically into the practice of journalism, Comrade Oredipe noted that whereas,  the Nigerian media is growing side by side with her peers across the world, turning inward, he said, the practice today as compared to what obtained, the ethics and professionalism years ago had dropped tremendously. Hear him:-
"You still refer to those early Journalists as the fathers of the profession, the value they brought into the profession is not what people are seeing today, that may be a question to ask, what had changed between that time and now?
 I think it's a reflection of the Nigerian economy, now...journalists are more exposed to corruption, a lot of journalists are also getting appointments, you can see the dynamics that came with the practice; but in those days they held the ethics so dearly. That is the challenge that we have now"
Speaking further on standards and  ethics, he noted that the standards and ethics of the profession had dropped which he attributed to state of the economy that had adversely affected media organizations not being able to pay their workers which according to him, had made some practitioners to compromise.
Kola Oredipe, said,
"it is not enough just to give an I.D card to journalist and to say, 'take,  this is your mail ticket',  and expect such journalist who has a family to cater for, and other siblings depending on him not exposed to corruption nor have ethical and or professional challenges. He however expressed confidence in some journalists who he said cannot compromise position no matter what! Hear this:-
"But I know that there are still journalists who can stand up and say... I stand with integrity, abide by the ethics, the code of conduct of the profession, trying to be fair and objective in their reportage, and with that we can say the media is still independent..."
He noted with concern that the Nigerian nation had not given the Media her rightful position in the scheme of things, he bared his mind to Golden Pen Newspapers in these words:-
"The three arms of Government, namely, the Executive arm, Legislative arm, and the Judiciary, see the journalist as a spy, so, they are never comfortable to see journalists around them, and it's very simple in the Nigerian system, because they feel that they are doing something that they don't want other people to see, and when they hear that a journalist is around, they feel very uncomfortable.
 "How can we grow the democracy without the media? We owe the people a lot in terms of information. What is happening in government, we owe the people, it's our duty to tell them this man holding public office should be accountable to the people, and it is through the channel of the media that the information and reports will come..."
Comrade Kola Oredipe posited.
Still spitting fire against the three arms of government: the Executive, the Legislative arm, and the Judicial arm, the frontline journalist stated that, the trio have given no space to the Media in the Nigerian system in the practice of freedom of expression, freedom to report, freedom of association which he said tantamount  trampling upon the constitutional functions of the media as the watch dog of the society.
 He described as unreasonable to sideline the media under whatever system of government and called on the authority at all levels to acknowledge the fact that, the media practitioners are all part of the Nigerian federation and that whatever happen to other Nigerians also happen to them.
He therefore called on the three arms of government to accommodate the fourth estate of the realm, the media,  to achieve cohesiveness in nation building, in our country.
Comrade Kola Oredipe's final word to the media on this encounter is a call on practitioners to maintain their professional independence in the report of factual news, maintain their integrity so as to be a reference point as to truthfulness and objectivity in  the noble profession, while warning against the media or some practitioners becoming a willing tools in the hands of other organizations or personalities.