By Robert Egbe

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of online newspaper, Premium Times, Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi, has said the current realities make regulation of the media a necessity.

But he proposed that such regulation should be left to the industry itself rather than to the government.

Olorunyomi spoke at an anniversary lecture on the 60th birthday of the Oloriewe of Oro Kingdom in Kwara State, Alhaji Raheem Adedoyin.

The Federal Government and its lawmakers have come under fire for the promotion of Nigeria Press Council (NPC) and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Amendment Bills, which critics say would allow authorities to control the media.

Both chambers of the National Assembly, on July 12, buckled to opposition from the public and stakeholders and suspended deliberations on the Bills. Speaking on the topic: Media, Democracy and Future of Nigeria, Olorunyomi noted that government attempts to regulate the media are not new.

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He said: “They have ranged from outright bans to curtailing freedom through draconian legislations and statutes. Then states have set up agencies, like the Nigerian Press Council, to which the independent media organisations have robustly pushed back, saying peer regulation is a better option.

“Government and its agents have suggested that the absence of enforcement mechanisms make peer regulation sound like a do-nothing option.”

The experienced journalist described the celebrator, Adedoyin, as a man of brilliance and hard work.

“Either as a reporter at The Guardian in Lagos; the Media Manager at The Herald, or Information Manager as Commissioner in his state, or even as a freedom of expression missioner through the process of the International Press Institute (IPI), Alhaji Adedoyin is a man and presence of distinction,” Olorunyomi added.

“However, as many countries today are seeing, media organisations can draft their own regulatory instrument and seek the backing of parliament to make them statutory. Such statutory regulation can help remove the scare on both sides.

“So, that brings us to the essential argument: why do we need regulation today? One is that the framework of those who do journalism has expanded beyond the received notions of the pre-digital age.

“We have bloggers and citizens practising journalism today. Some do far better work than established institutions because they stay faithful to the ethical imperatives of journalism…”  Olorunyomi argued that the media is broken but remains fixable.

“My contention is that it is a business model that has gone atrophy. I also argue that it can be fixed, and that the government, in so far as it believes in democracy and development, has a major role to play.

“Seen from this perspective, therefore, the rash of laws poured into the National Assembly in 2019 to ‘regulate’ the poor behaviour of parliament will be needless, if there is an honest purpose that what is wrong in our journalism is what they intend to fix.

“We know better that this is not the case. But if you engage public officials, particularly those who are genuine about the matter, you see a genuine ignorance and probably a true desire to help with things,” he said.