The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Journalism

  • The press can’t be watchdog without investigative journalism

    An investigative report is one that reveals new findings, based on the work and research of a reporter.  He does some preliminary research before launching an investigation or even pitching it to his editor. He must know the laws so he does not break them and knows how to use them to his benefit. Support his work with documents when possible and thinks about what documents he needs and how he can obtain them. He must not rush into interviews but must get as much information as he can first, so he can ask intelligent questions.  When he does get the interview, he is ready to challenge evasive answers.

    He must fact-check everything from documents to information obtained through sources. He avoids undercover investigations and ambush interviews unless when necessary. He always allows the subject of his investigation a fair chance to respond.  He must not be desperate to write his story in the face of evidence to the contrary. If he finds that his hypothesis is wrong, be prepares to shift gears and change his story. He must keep in touch with his sources on a regular basis and follow-up on stories.

    Investigative journalism is capital intensive and can only be perfectly practised in a society with vibrant economy that is private-driven. The much-taunted constitutional role of the press as the Forth Estate of the Realms and Press Freedom, tantamount to theory lacking pragmatic praxis without investigative journalism. The press in Nigeria and on the African continent in general still has a long way to go to wear the toga provided it by the grund norm that is the constitution. As long as government remains the highest spender through contract awards and business patronage, investigative journalism cannot find strong roots in Nigeria and Africa.

    In view of the overarching status groups and ethno religious prism through which Nigerian successive governments sees governance, the urgent need for investigative journalism practice becomes very necessary in the media agenda setting. There have been too many conspiracies by different sections of the ruling elites in the process of political power contestations culminating in the breakdown of law and order. Large-scale embezzlement of public funds through unexecuted contracts leading to acute deficit in social infrastructures is recurrent decimal.

    There are too many of these causal factors of the social anomie situation in Nigeria today that pragmatic investigative journalism can dig deeper to uncover. The fact about such social issues can be researched, investigated by investigative journalists to augment and accentuate the ineffective security agencies shackled by bureaucratic red tapeism. The state is overburden with thick hierarchical responsibilities and often fails to adopt risk management strategies in dealing with social conflicts.

    Just like investigative journalists, other professionals in social sciences and management should be allowed to provide their expertise as consultants to various government agencies including the national assemblies. Government decisions in its ramifications should be based on proven professional inputs and advises. It is often the unintended consequences of events that are harder to deal with especially; violent conflicts, militancy, insurgency, terrorism, crime and social upheaval leading to a revolution.

    Until the press galvanises itself to reclaim the media industry and begin to train practitioners in the act of investigative journalism, the society will remain at the mercy of different shades of politicians.  The political elites freed from either real division above or significant accountability below can afford to enrich themselves without distraction or retribution. If there was an attempt, it had to do with clash of the bourgeoisie divergent group interests. Exposure ceases to matter very much as impunity becomes the rule, like Bankers, leading Politicians do not go to jail in Nigeria as they deploy looted funds to fight back tenaciously. Corruption is not just but a function of the decline in the bourgeois political order but a symptom of the economic regime propped by capital to sustain the state in power.

    The political elites or actors do not see any reason for a paradigm shift in governance, planning, policy formulation and implementation. They do not care about liberation and emancipation of their fellow citizens trapped in the vicious cycle of hardship, poverty that underdevelopment has over time wrecked on the continent. They blindly follow in the footsteps of their colonial predecessors as comprador bourgeois who lack the spirit of inventiveness, entrepreneurship and discovery. They gloriously celebrate oppression, exploitation and abuse of power to the detriment of egalitarianism and social justice for all.

    Yet the state and its failing emasculates and weaken social institutions which makes it easy and convenient for politicians, military top brass and other state actors in connivance with capitalist agents to plunder the wealth of the nation with impunity.

    • By Comrade Ogbu A. Ameh

    National Convenor

    Generation for Change Africa Initiative GFCAI

    onwaters2011@gmail.com

  • FCT minister commiserates with NUJ over death of members

    The Minister, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Bello, has commiserated with members of FCT council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) over the death of their three colleagues in two months, describing the deaths as  losses to  journalism.

    Bello, who was at the council secretariat in Utako, Abuja, on a condolence visit, said the three fallen journalists were friends of the administration.

    The minister presented letters of condolence on behalf of the FCT administration, to the council chairman, Mr. Emmanuel Ogbeche, for transmission to the families of the deceased journalists: Grace Nwodo, aka Madam Waka of Love FM; Olajide Fashikun of Gong News and Chris Edoga of FRCN, all of the FCT council, who died between late December 2018 and January 2019.

    Bello, who was accompanied to the event by the Executive Secretary, Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Umar Gambo Jibrin, expressed disappointment at the state of the secretariat, used the occasion to also assure the Council that all hindrances to the completion of the FCT NUJ Secretariat have been cleared and that the contractor would mobilize to site for the speedy completion of the secretariat complex in a couple of weeks.

    “I am surprised that the building is still like this because I thought that by now it would have progressed more than this. But, I assure you that in the next two weeks, the contractor will be mobilised to site to complete at least the first phase because we agreed that the complex will be completed in phases. I can also assure you that when the first phase is completed, the building will be more benefitting than any other in the country,” he said.

    Ogbeche thanked the minister for his  support to the council, especially in his efforts to ensure the speedy completion of the Council’s secretariat.

    He lamented the lack of a befitting secretariat for the council and the slow pace of work at the site, calling on the Minister to make good his promised to complete the secretariat complex.

    Ogbeche also called on the Minister to provide the Council with buses for conveying members to and from union events as well as for sustainable investments that would take the union to the next level.

    A former Chairman of Council, Comrade Jacob Edi, commended the minister for his accessibility and purposefulness.

    He expressed confidence that the minister would  fulfil his promise of ensuring the completion of the FCT NUJ Complex which, according to him, should be befitting of the status of the Federal Capital Territory.

    Highlight of the occasion was a tour of the uncompleted secretariat complex by the Minister, accompanied by the FCT Permanent Secretary, Sir Chinyeaka C. Ohaa and other management staff of the FCTA, the Executive Secretary, FCDA, U.G Jibrin and members of the FCT NUJ.

     

  • Wanted: A prosperous Africa via journalism

    Tucked in towering hills and lush vegetation, Koforidua, a town in the Eastern Region of Ghana, is serene with a  quiet ambience. Located two hours from Accra, Ghana’s political capital, Koforidua’s aesthetic landscape turned the city to an ideal place for learning and intellectual engagement for the young journalists, who participated in the African Journalists for Economic Opportunities Training (AJEOT).

    Held at Summit Hotels, the event has become a rendezvous for intellectuals, ranging from political economists to journalists and public policy experts, who came from Kenya, Switzerland, United States (US), Nigeria and Ghana.

    The training was organised by the Ghana-based Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI), with the support of the Washington D.C.-based Atlas Economic Research Foundation, Language of Liberty Institute (LLI) and Network for Free Society.

    The training’s objective  was to expose the young journalists to ideas of individual liberty and economic freedom, and producing original journalistic works that will promote entrepreneurship, practicable economic policies, freedom and human rights.

    Opening the session with his presentation titled: “Introduction to Classical Liberalism”, Wale Ajetunmobi, a US Exchange Programme alumnus and Editor of The Nation’s CAMPUSLIFE section, described classical liberalism as the only idea that promotes values supporting individual liberty and economic freedom.

    The idea, he said, gave every human being the liberty to pursue anything that would bring peace, contentment and happiness to them.

    He listed the underlying principles of classical liberalism to include personal freedom, free trade, freedom of religion, rights to private property, limited government, equality and justice, among others.

    He said: “The idea that the government should be in charge of business does not ultimately translate to progress and prosperity, because the involvement of the government in business stifles the market. The government should only create an enabling environment for people to freely exchange values. This would be the beginning of prosperity.”

    Speaking on Liberty and Free Market in Africa, the ILAPI President, Peter Bismark, explained why Africa must do away with retrogressive trade policies. People, he said, must stop expecting handouts from the government.

    He said: “It is time Africa rejected an economic system that is heavily dependant on the government. Majority of Africans believe the government must provide their daily bread, which is not supposed to be so. A society is doomed to fail if it is the government that is controlling the factors of production and the supply of materials needed by the people. This limits the freedom of individuals in the society to be in control of what they wish to trade in and robs them of economic freedom.

    “But, in a free market system, which preaches limited government’s intervention, people have freedom to innovate and create wealth that will bring out the society out of poverty. In this case, the only responsibility the government has is to protect the property rights of individuals in the society and maintain justice.”

    Founder, IMANI Center for Policy and Education, a Ghana-based Think-Tank, Franklin Cudjoe, linked Africa’s underdevelopment and poverty to the influx of foreign aid, which, he said, focused on irrelevant programmes.

    In his presentation titled: “Africa needs freer markets and fewer tyrants”, Cudjoe said centralised state rule marked by corruption and sustained by needless foreign aid was a common trend among African countries. He described them as “the shackles that keep Africans poor”.

    He said: “Most African countries, including Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho, lack economic freedom and property rights; these countries have their economies mismanaged by the state whose actors depend on aid.

    “All these countries have a history of utopian schemes that failed to produce everlasting manna. State farms, marketing boards, land redistribution, price controls and huge regional tariffs left few incentives or opportunities for subsistence farmers to expand. Despite torrents of aid, these cruel social experiments could not turn sands verdant or prevent the granaries of southern and eastern Africa from rotting.”

    Noting that Africa needs more freedom than foreign aid, Cudjoe said: “The only way to give food security to 200 million sub-Saharan Africans is to give them the tools, not to rely on yet more aid and the government. There are good benefits that come from property rights, for instance, which also inspire the motivation to invest in, improve and preserve factors of production. Motivation does not come from aid, central control and state serfdom.”

    Vicente Di Camara, a young libertarian from Switzerland, spoke on Geopolitics, during which he took the participants on the parameters used by international bodies to measure the degree of freedom in countries.

    He also spoke on the concept of neo-liberalism, use of language and items of international politics that cause poverty in developing countries.

    Executive Director, Conservative Policy Research Centre in Ghana, Ebenezer Nil-Tackie, who spoke on “Understanding the Liberal Framwork within the Realm of Public Policy Formulation”, discussed how societies emerged and transitioned without any contact with existing civilisation.

    Abdul-Rahman Sarpong of the Centre for Blockchain and Management Systems facilitated an interactive session with the participants, discussing entrepreneurial strategies and method to designing a practicable business model to run businesses.

    A speaker from Kenya, Berlinder Odek, took the participants on a discourse around Internet freedom. She spoke on the need to create a free society through Freedom of Information (FoI) Law, which, she said, had been enacted in several African countries.

    Atlas Network’s Executive Vice President for International Programmes Tom Palmer, who engaged the participants through Skype call from Washington DC, spoke on “Identifying tools for economic journalism”.

    The training featured individual assignment and group works, after which prizes were presented to participants with the best business model design.

    Some of the participants described the training as “intellectually engaging”, promising to promote principles of classical liberalism and liberate Africa from the shackles of poverty through their journalistic activities.

     

  • Why good journalism matters

    It used to be that journalism practices were largely the exclusive preserve of professional journalists who act as gatekeepers. If the media, based on professional standard and the ethics of the profession, decides that information is not good for dissemination or for any other reason, it doesn’t get published or broadcast.

    Gradually, over the years, no thanks to disruptive technologies and new media, information dissemination has almost become free for all. Virtually anyone who has a telephone or one social media platform or the other now regards himself or herself as a ‘journalist’.

    All kinds of websites and blogs have come up to compete with the traditional media in getting the attention of public on what to believe as true.

    While information sharing is not the same thing as journalism, there is a worrying dimension where the public are beginning to equate misinformation and propaganda as journalism.

    So much falsehood go viral online that even when traditional media and journalists publish what is supposed to be the truth of a matter, the gullible public are not interested.

    It is against this background that there have been concerns about the need to maintain traditional journalism standards which is needed to ensure that the public is not misinformed.

    This development must have informed the choice of the theme of the International Press institute (IPI) World Congress held in Abuja this week – Why Good Journalism Matters: Quality Media for Strong Societies.

    President Muhammadu Buhari who declared the congress open aptly stressed the importance of good journalism at a time when the channels of information eco system have become free for all.

    “In a world where the borderline between hate speech and free speech has become blurred, good journalism matters. In an environment where fake news dwarfs investigative reporting, good journalism matters. For survival in an increasingly competitive field, good journalism matters. Good journalism promotes good governance,” he said.

    Indeed, good journalism matters as we need to ensure that the principles of truth, fairness, balance and objectivity which are the hallmarks of professional media practice are adhered to by anyone who seeks to disseminate information.

    The borderline between hate speech and free speech should not be blurred as President Buhari noted. Freedom of speech or the press should be exercised with a high sense of responsibility. There is great danger when false information is disseminated as truth.

    There have been instances where unnecessary panic has resulted in crises in parts of the country based on false information.

    We need good journalism that seeks to inform, educate and entertain in accordance with the spelt out roles of the media. We need good journalism which is indeed free from any unnecessary influence, whether government, political or economic.

    It is through good journalism that we can ensure that critical issues that can guarantee development are given due attention. Issues have to be thoroughly investigated and reported in a way to cause necessary change.

    To guarantee good journalism, it is also necessary to ensure that journalists have the capacity to do their job based on training and conditions of service.

  • In heaven saints don’t become ‘God’ and an angel is nobody in particular

    A notable politician dismisses fear of backlash, over his persistent rape and impregnation of minors. He brags to a friend in Diaspora, that, “The news is dead on delivery,” because he has journalism’s shining lights on a leash of cash.

    As the mongrel dares extremities for a gift of bone, so do his ‘boys’ in the media, he claimed.

    Predictably, the most senior media aide in the culprit’s pack of hounds spread the cash and killed news of his sex crimes.

    It is only fair that the aide watches helplessly as randy, power-drunk politicians rape his daughters and infect them with gonorrhea, like his principal’s underage victims. By Edumare’s retributive grace. That he might understand agonies of his principal’s victims and their families.

    The media aide is neither conflicted nor appalled. A passion for truth and ethics could never spur him to imperil his job – which he considers his ‘out’ from bleak, thankless Journalism.

    The life of a journalist-turned-media-aide is a parody in which honour plays no part. Unlike other members of his principal’s court, he enjoys no prideful place. He sits on his haunch, like a dog on its paws outside its master’s court.

    Like the hound, he is forever waiting to lunge, with a kill-cry and bare fangs, at perceived ‘detractors’ of his principal, the dog owner.

    ‘Ki lo ma nse awon boys yii naa?’ (What’s wrong with these boys?), he drones irritably, whenever his former colleagues in the media, subject his principal to harsh scrutiny and objective criticism. He assures his principal – who could be the president, senate president, a state governor, legislative speaker or local government chairman – that the press can be bought over.

    Media aides wrongly assume every journalist to be manipulable by cash, a foreign trip, a gallon of vegetable oil, Christmas/Ileya ram or a bag of rice. Thus he gets a generous budget to silence the ‘boys’ and inspire them to ignore the ineptitude and corruption of his principal.

    Of the bribe allotment, he siphons 70 per cent to his personal account, and splits the remainder among the ‘boys.’ It never gets old to see so-called ‘press boys’ scurry for residue of the bribe with dark delight.

    Rebels against the rot are daubed unfairly aggressive, biased, sanctimonious or driven by questionable animosity because they have been ‘left out.’

    There is a difference between ‘press boys’ and ‘Gentlemen of the Press.’ The press boy forever prowls, lobbying along the corridors of power in frantic quest to become media aide. A ‘Gentleman of the Press’ however, is a true ethical native. And he exists.

    He understands that the work of a media aide connotes the soul’s struggle against the body. Thus he rejects the role, knowing that as media aide, he would suffer the affliction of languid ethics, insatiable lusts and poisonous glamour; like a courtesan haunted in post-orgasmic flush by relentless spasms of lust for riches and unearned pleasure. Like fabled Tantalus, his thirst is never quenched.

    Media aides get confused too. Mcenteer calls this condition occupational hazard for those who move from journalism into government, or vice versa. They experience confusion of professionalism and their evolving identities.

    Several media aides of note, venerated critics celebrated at home and abroad suffer irredeemable descent as justifiers of ineptitude and political trifles as Special Adviser to governors and the Nigerian President. Their apologists, however, justify their indiscretions claiming, “What are they supposed to do? Would you quit if it were you?”

    Nobody is asking them to quit. Yet it is instructive that men of immense wisdom and worth, are reduced to political ‘bingos’ on a leash of cash.

    Their difficulties vary in character and severity but are classifiable as problems of ethics, irony, conflict, confusion and blur. What if they had vied for their principals’ offices? This couldn’t be preposterous given their once luscious reputation as a thought moulders, managers of men and resources.

    Sadly, they mutate from glowing works of self-sculpture, into political statuettes and every gadfly’s unfinished model.

    Similar ethical dilemma afflict journalists across the seas. Charles Royer suffered unpleasant, public, irony at his election to Seattle City Hall. Before he became American Mayor, Royer attained fame for his nightly 60 to 90-second political commentaries on KING-TV.

    In 1976, his half-hour documentary, “The Bucks Stop Here,” exposed improper use of special-interest money in the state legislature.

    The programme earned him two national journalism awards. When he became Mayor in 1977, Royer decided to share valuable information with his former press colleagues in off-the-record sessions. But TV crews wanted to bring their cameras into the meetings, against his wishes. Royer eventually showed up on TV and newspaper front pages, shoving TV cameras out. He will forever remember the headline with the photo: “TV Commentator turned Mayor shuts out TV.”

    Another poignant example is Edward R. Murrow, respected radio and TV journalist’s alleged bid to prevent the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)  from airing “Harvest of Shame” soon after he became the head of United States Information Agency. It was one of Murrow’s final documentaries for the CBS network and it revealed the terrible living and working conditions of migrant farm laborers in Florida.

    His attempt however, failed, but leaked to the press thus embarrassing the novice bureaucrat. “Murrow, the government propaganda chief, had tried to censor Murrow, the muckraking journalist,” notes Mcenteer.

    Despite their shortcomings Royer and Murrow served in ennobling circumstances. Not as glorified errand boys or attack hounds. It’s about time Nigerian journalists turned media aide played heaven’s advocate to their principals innate demons.

    They should pitilessly offer harsh but constructive criticisms from patriotic and envisaged media perspective, of their principals’ intended policies or actions before they are made public.

    If it is their principals’ wish to transform Nigeria, media aides should help them understand that in heaven, saints don’t become ‘God’ and an angel is nobody in particular.

  • Journalism: 30 years and still counting

    Journalism: 30 years and still counting

    Until I saw the facebook announcement of a live chat by the Chairman of the Editorial Board, The Nation, Sam Omatseye,  to mark the 30th anniversary of his journalism career, it didn’t occur to me that I had missed marking my own anniversary.

    As I responded in my comment on the post, Omatseye is undoubtedly an accomplished journalist who has made and continues to make his mark in the profession. From being a reporter, journalism teacher and now a foremost columnist, Omatseye’s 30 years’ odyssey is worthy of celebration and I join in congratulating him for his accomplishments.

    His weekly Monday column in The Nation,’In touch’, is usually a well-articulated discourse of major national issues laced with historical facts and literary allusions. His views may be usually controversial, but he sure comes across as having the strength of conviction on what he writes about.

    He is very passionate about good journalism practice and doesn’t miss any opportunity to advocate for it or spot talented journalists who he goes out of his way to support in every way he can.

    Great journalists are made of the stuff Omatseye is made of based on his reports and writings in and outside the newsroom in the past 30 years. I wish him many more years of meritorious practice.

    How times fly. Like Omatseye, it’s over thirty years since I got my letter of appointment as Ogun State Correspondent of The Punch newspaper in May 1987. I still recall how I reluctantly accepted the appointment because what I wanted was a job in the Lagos headquarters and not anywhere else where I had not lived.

    The Managing Director of the paper, Mr Ademola Osinubi, who was then Deputy Editor convinced me that based on copies of my stories he had read, I would be able to do the job despite being a fresh graduate. He also ‘cajoled’ me that I would have an office to myself and a telephone as a state correspondent.

    I have him to thank for the confidence he and the then Editor, Alhaji Nojeem Jimoh, had in me to entrust me with the major responsibility of covering Ogun State which in no small way boosted my confidence and provided unmatchable learning opportunities that prepared me for the years ahead.

    Many things I still do today have their roots in The Punch, including my understanding of the new media and media career development.

    My career has seen me moving from The Punch after twelve years to brief stints in the defunct National Interest, Financial Standard, New Age and now The Nation where I have a few months to equal The Punch years.

    I set out to be a journalist from my secondary school days, thanks to my late father who gave me access to newspapers and many literature books.  Thirty years after, I have no regrets and will do it again if I have the opportunity to start all over again.

    Despite many negative impressions about journalism, the profession has been good to me in too many ways that I can’t deny as I declared in a recent facebook post.

     

  • Dapo Olorunyomi@60: fathering a new development journalism template

    When many of his contemporaries see problems, Dapsy sees solutions to such problems.

    Dapo Olorunyomi@60: fathering a new development journalism template Ropo Sekoni B’omode ba l’ori l’owo e je ka pon le, bo se agbalagba e je ka mooyi re. This adaptation from Sunny Ade means if a young man has a good head on his shoulder, let us give him the panegyrics due to him, just as we do to elders with similar qualities.

    “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”
    — Voltaire

    “I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.”
    — Tom Stoppard

    Today’s piece is taken from a tribute I gave to Dapo Olorunyomi at a surprise ceremony organised in his honour in Abuja last Wednesday by Premium Times, The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, and many other organisations fathered by Dapsy since his return from exile.

    I first met the man being celebrated here about forty years ago at the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). He was a student in the Department of Literature in English while I was a senior lecturer. Looking back, I am not surprised about Dapsy’s many achievements for which he is being appreciated in a festival mode that must have overwhelmed him today, given his modesty.

    Dapsy was a risk taker, who could not separate social activism from his academic study while at Ife. He was in the group of students who researched teachers in the department and read both primary and secondary sources on the topic of the day ahead of time to prepare for critical response to whatever the lecturer had to say. In addition to his sophisticated critical culture, normally expected from students of literary studies, he showed high promise of creativity for teachers ready to observe their students.  He was the type to add some undecipherable drawings to his notes during tutorials. One thing that stood out in his response in class and at faculty and other conferences was a palpable preoccupation with human rights, freedom of speech, and social and economic justice. His voracious reading of progressive literature across disciplines and a flair on his part to discuss from trans-disciplinary perspectives could not have been missed by his teachers and his peers. Dapsy demonstrated as an undergraduate an enviable readiness to marry theory and practice. He was among other students who saw a Siamese connection between knowledge and human progress. Dapsy’s humility and modesty in the way he spoke and acted   then did not include being a target for any form of pulpit bullying from those in academic and administrative authority.

    With such qualities in his twenties, many of the risks and accomplishments of Dapsy in his adult years are in consonance with his pedigree. In metaphoric terms, Dapsy’s frontier man’s ruggedness as he explores and reshapes whatever new political and social reality in which he finds himself has been evident in his impact on the country’s journalism landscape in the last 35 years. One such evidence is his role in his participation in the design and practice of guerrilla journalism in response to the antics of military dictators in the country. Fathers of Nigeria’s guerilla journalism: Bayo Onanuga, Kunle Ajibade, Femi Ojudu, Idowu Obasa, and Dapo Olorunyomi, and others, some of whom later got jailed, pushed into exile, or pushed underground by military dictators turned journalism into a weapon against tyranny and repression. The weaponisation of mass communication by these daring risk takers could not have been possible without their monastic commitment to inalienable and inviolable rights of citizens to freedom of expression, thought, action, and the pursuit of happiness. It is remarkable that no amount of pressure was enough to break the spirit of Dapsy while in exile.

    Most references to Dapsy during the pro-democracy struggle are to his membership of the army of guerrilla journalists, with very little mention of his activities while in exile in Washington. He came to Washington with his weapons of change. At the beginning of his exile, he served as special assistant to Chief Anthony Enahoro, who, like Dapsy, ran for dear life from Nigeria at the peak of the country’s tyrannical rule. Apart from being a central figure in pro-democracy publications and meetings of NADECO leaders with relevant sectors of the American polity, Dapsy quickly immersed himself of Autonomy Alert. He also assisted Chief Enahoro to work on the ideas and papers that later became seminal to PRONACO after the return of Chief Enahoro from exile. In tune with Dapsy’s quiet but restless nature, he used the years of exile to acquire new skills such as photography and training in application of telecommunication technology to mass communication, thus preparing himself for a transition from analogue to digital mass communication and transition to the journalism of the future.

    Dapsy’s love of innovation and his innovative spirit came into prominence in the post-exile period. He came back to Nigeria to prepare the practice of journalism in Nigeria for the creative destruction that we are all witnessing in many of the projects and initiatives started by this man of ideas and action. When many of his contemporaries see problems, Dapsy sees solutions to such problems. As a founding member of the group that created the template for guerrilla journalism in Nigeria, Dapsy threw himself into new initiatives and building of new templates for civic engagement during and after his exile. He used every opportunity available to him to create institutions deigned to improve transparency and accountability in governance with the aim of strengthening political, social and economic justice for all citizens. His first formal job after his exile was with The Open Society in Dakar. He avoided learning French to, in his own words, have adequate time to groom a new generation of civil society enthusiasts in West Africa.

    Shortly after that, he came, on the sponsorship of Freedom House, to enhance post-military democratisation process in the country. At the end of this project, he left behind The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, which is now in its 12th year. He responded to calls to serve as Chief of Staff at the EFCC and assisted in internationalising the fight against corruption through establishment of various financial tracking initiatives. He was one the team of NEXT’s experiment in investigative reporting before his founding of Premium Times. In the few years of the existence of Premium Times, the online investigative journalism ‘newspaper’ has given birth to several projects: PT Centre for Investigative Journalism, PT Books and other initiatives on Health and Agriculture and rural journalism.

    Dapsy’s emphasis on renewing mass communication in response to new innovations in communication technology is still unfolding. But his readiness to think out of the box ahead to enhance professional performance requires special mention. Even though he is still a victim of the excesses of power, even as recent as the beginning of this year, Dapsy remains undaunted in his determination to change the way journalism is done in our country for the good of its citizens. He does this not only through his own Premium Times but also via many of his other creations. With ten more years of active duty as a self-employed man, it is too soon to tell how far Dapsy will go in changing the form and content of mass communication in the service of democracy. One thing that is already clear is that Dapsy has embarked on sustaining knowledge and data journalism as the way to respond to new challenges thrown up by new telecommunication technologies and forms of signification.  It is already evident that Dapsy’s new preoccupation is already paying off through training of new generations of journalists and promotion of new forms of mass communication for advancement of human rights, accountability in government, and of social democracy in our country and beyond.

    Dapsy, you have shown that humility, modesty, honesty, and patriotism, in the words of Mark Twain “to your country at all times and to your government when it deserves it” do not necessarily impede stellar achievements. Welcome to senior citizenship and best wishes in your new age grade!

  • How to end impunity in Nigerian Journalism

    How to end impunity in Nigerian Journalism

    In the bid to end the challenge of impunity in Nigerian Journalism, Trinity Communications, publishers of Safety and Security Watch Magazine has held a one-day free symposium, themed; ‘Safety of Journalists and the Challenge of Impunity in Nigeria’.

    Speaking at the symposium yesterday at NECA House in Ikeja, Lagos, A Media Consultant/ Former Managing Director, Champion Newspaper, Mr Emma Agu, said the issue of impunity and clashes between journalists and security agents can be addressed through constructive engagement between the security agencies and the media.

    According to him; “Journalists need to be acquainted with security imperatives and the security agencies should understand the working of the media, outside their perception of the way the media should function. This relationship would strengthen understanding between the two professions and reduce conflicts and causes of.”

    He noted that there is need to create some features for journalists covering certain activities by way of insurance as there could be a disaster. “Media houses should create a special insurance for Journalists covering conflict zone.”

    According to him, Journalists should practice justice and be professional. “The professional aspects ensure that all the elements of good journalism are put in place, the Journalist is balanced and ensures that all the parties are well covered.”

    He said the government should also show responsibility to Journalists.

    Managing Editor/ Coordinator, Trinity Communications, Dr Amaechi Chinyere said the symposium is to mark the 2017 World Day for Safety of Journalists.

    According to her, the aim is to create awareness on the hazards that are embedded in the job of a Journalist and so that the society will understand the journalists and find a way of assisting them to do their work better.

    “The only way to bring an end to impunity is through the law. The law is there but it is in implementing them that we have a problem.

    For years people harass journalist and employers don’t pay them well.  Journalists fight for others but nobody cares about nor fights for them.”

    The only way to stop impunity, she said, is to play by the rules and for Nigerians to rise against impunity wherever it occurs in the media.

    She urged the government to comply with the provisions of all laws. “All the laws against impunity should be activated. Employers of labour should equip their workers.  All Journalists should rise up and begin to do our job well. We should do an easement on the hazards of our jobs before embarking on it,” she said.

    Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole, said the Police and the public work hand in hand to achieve necessary result.

    According to him, “The police have evolved over time, we have the human face and we have increased our form of community relationship.”

    Famous-Cole disagreed with the conflict between the media and the police, noting that they have good relationships. “The new CP wants us to synergies more and create a better relationship and be more cautious to how we interact in our conduct among civilians,” he said.

    Zonal Head of Training, Zone 2, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Lagos, Segun Akinyemi, said, the risk in the Journalism profession can be reduced through training, insurance understanding, advocacy and acquiring knowledge.

    “Journalists are the only group of people that go to war without training and weapons. They go to war to cover the situation and this has to change. You as a journalist must know the danger you are going to face in a place and access it as this would help you in discharging your duties,” he said.

  • Nigeria among countries where extremists threaten journalism

    Elisabeth Witchel, Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) Impunity Campaign Consultant, in this report on the Global Impunity Index, sheds light on countries where journalists’ safety is not guaranteed and establishes that threats from violent extremist groups operating beyond the reach of authorities underpin high impunity rates in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria.

    Impunity in the murders of journalists can be an intractable cycle stretching over a decade or more, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 10th annual Global Impunity Index, a ranking of countries where journalists are murdered and their killers go free. Seven countries on this year’s index have been listed every year since the index launched a decade ago–including Somalia, which is the worst country for unsolved murders for the third year in a row.

    Impunity thrives in conflict environments, where powerful actors often use violent intimidation to control media coverage, while weak-to-nonexistent law and order increases the likelihood of attacks. Justice for over two dozen journalists murdered in Somalia in the past decade is one casualty of prolonged civil war and an insurgency waged by al-Shabaab extremists.

    The war in Syria pushed that country into the second worst spot on the index, compared with third last year. Third on this year’s index is Iraq, where journalists are menaced by the militant group Islamic State and state-backed militias, among other groups.

    Fighting between political factions in South Sudan, number four on the index, is the backdrop behind a 2015 ambush during which five journalists were killed. Threats from violent extremist groups operating beyond the reach of authorities underpin high impunity rates in three other countries on the index: Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria.

    Afghanistan dropped off the list for the first time since CPJ began calculating the index in 2008. Though security conditions remain volatile and no convictions in journalist murders were achieved, targeted killings of journalists have declined. Instead, larger-scale acts of violence such as a truck bomb attack in downtown Kabul in May that killed 150 people, including one journalist, are responsible for recent fatalities. Over a dozen journalists have been killed there in the past decade while covering combat, by crossfire, or while covering dangerous assignments. CPJ records only two murders, both unsolved, for the period covered by this index.

    The Impunity Index, published annually to mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on November 2, calculates the number of unsolved murders over a 10-year period as a percentage of each country’s population. For this edition, CPJ analyzed journalist murders in every nation that took place between September 1, 2007 and August 31, 2017. Only those nations with five or more unsolved cases for the period are included on the index-a threshold that 12 countries met this year, compared with 13 last year.

    Conflict is not the only cause of impunity. In countries such as the Philippines, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, and India-countries that bill themselves as democracies but have repeatedly appeared on the index-government officials and criminal groups go unpunished for murdering journalists in high numbers.

    Over the decade that CPJ has published the Global Impunity Index, Somalia’s impunity rating shot up by 198 percent. Other countries that saw impunity ratings increase the most over the past decade are: Mexico (142 percent), Pakistan (113 percent), and India (100 percent); Syria (up 195 percent) and Brazil (up 177 percent) experienced huge increases in impunity despite not appearing on the index all 10 years.

    In addition to Afghanistan, four countries that appeared on the index have come off at various times since 2008: Colombia, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Their exit from the list is attributable primarily to declines in violence associated with the end of civil wars rather than with prosecutions being achieved. Only Colombia and Nepal convicted the perpetrators of journalist killings, and only in a handful of cases.

    International attention to the issue of impunity in journalist murders has increased in the past 10 years. The United Nations has adopted a total of five resolutions–three by the Human Rights Council, one by the General Assembly and the one by the Security Council–urging states to take measures to promote justice when journalists are attacked. This year also marked the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the U.N. Plan of Action for the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity.

    This year, 23 states responded to the UNESCO director general’s request for information on the status of investigations into killed journalists, including eight countries on this index. Pakistan acknowledged receipt of the request, but did not provide information. Three index countries-India, South Sudan, and Syria-failed to respond at all. CPJ and other press freedom groups advocate for full participation by all states in this accountability mechanism.

    The 12 countries on the index account for nearly 80 percent of the unsolved murders that took place worldwide during the 10-year period ending August 31, 2017.

    Four countries on this year’s index-India, Mexico, Nigeria, and the Philippines-are on the governing council of the Community of Democracies, a coalition dedicated to upholding and strengthening democratic norms.

    In five countries listed on the index, new murders took place over the past year, a testimony to the powerful cycle of impunity and violence.

    Political groups, including Islamic State and other extremist organizations, are the suspected perpetrators in one third of murder cases. Government and military officials are considered the leading suspects in about a quarter of the murders.

    About 93 percent of murder victims are local reporters. The majority cover politics and corruption in their home countries.

     

    Somalia

    At least one journalist, Abdiaziz Ali, was murdered since last year’s index was compiled. Somalia has issued the death penalty against at least three individuals accused of murdering journalists, in contrast with international human rights norms. In February, newly elected President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed announced his support for media freedom, but he has failed to advance justice in the killings of any journalists.

    Abdiaziz Ali was walking home from his parents’ house in Mogadishu in September 2016 when two men on motorbikes pulled over and shot him several times. Abdiaziz had reported on the civilian toll of Somalia’s conflict between government forces and the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab. At least eight journalists murdered in the past decade were affiliated with Abdiaziz’s news outlet, the Shabelle Media Network.

     

    Syria

    CPJ has not confirmed any murders of journalists in Syria since last year’s index, though it has recorded at least six other journalist fatalities in that period, including deaths by crossfire and while carrying out dangerous assignments.

    Syria moved up one spot, from number three to number two, on the Impunity Index. Not a single case of a journalist’s murder has been prosecuted in Syria since CPJ began keeping track. Syria has never responded to UNESCO’s requests for the judicial status of journalist killings in the country.

    In December 2015, 23-year-old Ahmed Mohamed Al-Mousa was shot twice in the head in front of his family home in Abu al-Duhur, a town in northwestern Syria. Al-Mousa was an editor for Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), a Syrian citizen journalist group. Al-Mousa’s murder came amid a campaign of violence by Islamic State against members of RBSS and other Syrian journalists.

    A Kurdish Muslim cleric on May 6, 2010, leads mourners in a prayer over Kurdish journalist and student Sardasht Osman who was kidnapped and killed that day in Erbil in the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq. Seven years later, no one has been convicted of his murder.

     

    Iraq

    Iraq fell to the third spot on the index from number two last year. The number of journalist murders has fallen since the mid-2000s, when sectarian violence was even more pervasive.

    Iraq has failed to fully prosecute a single killing of a journalist. In only one case, the 2013 murder of Kawa Garmyanein Kurdistan, have any suspects been convicted; the mastermind behind the assassination remains at large. In addition to killings and abductions by Islamic State in recent years, Shia militias that mobilized to fight the terrorist group also menace journalists with impunity.

    In January 2016, broadcast reporter Saif Talal and his colleague, cameraman Hassan al-Anbaki, were driving in Diyala province in eastern Iraq when unidentified gunmen intercepted their vehicle, forced them out the car, and shot them dead. Their station, Al-Sharqiya, accused “one of the militias on the loose” of carrying out the murder.

     

    South Sudan

    No culprits have been identified, let alone convicted, in any of the five journalist murders CPJ has documented in South Sudan. In this climate of impunity, journalists have been detained, harassed, and physically attacked, as well as killed in crossfire. Several journalists have been murdered for reasons that CPJ was unable to connect to their work, such as ethnic strife. South Sudan has never responded to UNESCO’s requests for the judicial status of journalist killings in the country.

    In January 2015, five journalists were shot, attacked with machetes, and set on fire in an ambush in Western Bahr al Ghazal state. The journalists were in a politician’s convoy.

     

    Philippines

    The Philippines dropped one place in the index from last year. In October 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte formed the Presidential Task Force on Media Security, which includes a designated team of investigators and prosecutors for the speedy probe of new cases of media killings. The commission has announced investigations into several murders, but no convictions have been achieved. Meanwhile, two people including a former policeman claimed Duterte ordered the killing of radio broadcaster Jun Pala in 2003, when Duterte was mayor of Davao City. Duterte has denied any connection to the crime.

    There has been one murder since the previous index, the March 2017 shooting of reporter Joaquin Briones. Justice has not advanced for the 2009 Maguindanao massacre victims, among them 32 journalists and media workers. Three (out of dozens) of suspects were acquitted in July this year on grounds of insufficient evidence. The regional appeals court also upheld petitions for bail by Datu Sajid, a principal suspect, according to news reports.

    In April 2014, two gunmen went into the home of tabloid reporter Rubylita Garcia and shot her multiple times. She died in the hospital shortly after. Garcia had worked to expose wrongdoing in the Cavite province police force. A senior police officer was named by the justice department as the main suspect, but no one has been prosecuted.

     

    Mexico

    Partial justice was meted out in March 2017 when police commander Santiago Martínez was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the 2016 murder of reporter Marcos Hernández Bautista. The mastermind has not been prosecuted. In May, President Enrique Peña Nieto pledged in a meeting with a CPJ delegation to prioritize combating impunity in the murders of journalists. He subsequently replaced the special prosecutor for crimes against free expression, a post tasked with investigating the killings of journalists. The move followed the release of CPJ’s special report “No Excuse,” which calls on the government to do more to break the cycle of violence in Mexico.

    In 2017 alone, at least four journalists have been murdered in connection to their work.

    On May 15, 2017, investigative reporter Javier Valdez Cárdenas was dragged from his car and shot dead in Culiacán in Sinaloa state. Valdez, who received CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 2011, dedicated his life to telling the stories of the victims of Mexico’s drug war. The office of the federal Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE) has taken charge of his case, but no one has been arrested.

     

    Pakistan

    CPJ has not confirmed any work-related murder of a journalist since 2015, though several journalists have been victims of non-fatal attacks or killings that CPJ has not been able to link to journalism.

    Perpetrators have been prosecuted in only two murders that have taken place in the past decade. An investigation that was reopened last year in the 2014 New Year’s Day murder of journalist Shan Dahar appears to be at a standstill. A draft “Journalists Welfare and Protection” bill has been working its way through a broad consultation process but the independent Pakistan Press Foundation has criticised it for failing to include measures to combat impunity in attacks on the media.

    In April 2014, two unidentified gunmen stormed the offices of the independent news agency Online International News Network in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, and shot dead bureau chief Irshad Mastoi and trainee reporter Ghulam Rasool. Prior to the attack, Mastoi had been threatened by an array of actors, including sectarian and militant groups and security personnel, according to family and colleagues. Local journalists in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and Balochistan work under pressure from many sources: pro-Taliban groups, Pakistani security forces and intelligence agencies, separatists, and state-sponsored anti-separatist militias. More than two-thirds of the killings that took place in Pakistan included in this index took place in these areas.

     

    Brazil

    For the first time since 2009, CPJ has not recorded any new murders of journalists in Brazil, a possible indication that its stepped-up efforts to combat impunity-in the past four years Brazil has convicted suspects in six cases-are having an impact.

    While the murders of journalists have slowed, so have prosecutions. No one has been sentenced for a journalist murder since 2015, when the gunman who perpetrated the murders of photographer Walgney Assis de Carvalho and reporter Walgney Assis de Carvalho was convicted.

    Gleydson Carvalho was shot live on the air while presenting his afternoon radio show in April 2015. Prior to his murder, Carvalho, who was known to be critical in his broadcasts of local police and politicians, including a local mayor, had received death threats. Five suspects, including the alleged gunman, have been arrested but not tried. The suspected mastermind remains at large.

     

    Russia

    Suspects have been convicted in three cases of journalists murdered in the past decade, though in only one, the 2009 shooting of Anastasiya Baburova, was the mastermind identified and prosecuted.

    At least two journalists, Dmitry Popkov and Nikolai Andrushchenko, have been murdered in retaliation for their journalism in 2017, ending a lull of nearly three years in which CPJ did not record any targeted killings.

    Natalya Estemirova, contributor to the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta and an advocate for the Moscow-based human rights group Memorial, was abducted near her home in Grozny, Chechnya, early on July 15, 2009. A few hours later, her body, with gunshot wounds in the chest and head, was found in a ditch next to a highway. Estemirova had reported relentlessly on human rights violations committed by federal and regional authorities in Chechnya. No one has been prosecuted for her murder, and the investigation has been at a standstill since 2013.

     

    Bangladesh

    In November last year, police arrested a member of the militant group Ansarullah Bangla Team who admitted involvement in the murders of two secular bloggers, Niloy Neel and Faisal Arefin Dipan, according to news reports. Since 2015, several suspects have been detained in these and other brutal attacks against secular bloggers and editors.

    Only in one case, that of Ahmed Rajib Haider, who was hacked to death in 2013, have the killers been convicted.

    In 2015, two assailants stabbed and hacked blogger Avijit Roy to death as he was leaving a book fair in the Dhaka University campus area. Roy’s wife was badly injured in the attack. Roy, a naturalised U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin, wrote blog posts on secular issues including atheism and free expression. Despite multiple leads and arrests, no one has been prosecuted.

     

    Nigeria

    Five journalists have been killed with complete impunity in past decade. Several nonfatal attacks and arrests of journalists took place this year. In June, editor Charles Otu was abducted and beaten by thugs who told him to stop writing critically of the Ebonyi state government.

    Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the October 2011 murder of Zakariya Isa, a reporter and cameraman for the state-run Nigeria Television Authority.

     

    India

    In April, India’s Maharashtra state passed legislation outlying stiffer penalties for incidents of violence against journalists and news outlets. The new law requires high-ranking police officers to investigate incidents of violence against journalists and designates such attacks a non-bailable offense, according to the International Federation of Journalists.

    All murders of journalists in India documented by CPJ have been carried out with complete impunity. On September 5, 2017, after the research period for this index closed, independent journalist Gauri Lankesh, was shot dead outside her home in Bangalore. India has never responded to UNESCO’s requests for the judicial status of journalist killings in the country.

    Umesh Rajput, a reporter with the Hindi-language daily Nai Dunia, was shot dead outside his home in Chhura village, on the outskirts of Raipur district in the central state of Chhattisgarh, on January 23, 2011. The 33-year-old journalist reported on allegations of medical negligence and claims that the son of a politician was involved in illegal gambling. Six years later, no one has been arrested for Rajput’s murder.

  • WAIFEM, Centre for Financial Journalism hold workshop

    The West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM) in collaboration with Centre for Financial Journalism (CFJ Nigeria) is organising a Workshop on Budget Monitoring and Reporting for Financial Analysts and Journalists. The five-day workshop is scheduled for July 17-21, 2017 at the Central Bank of Nigeria’s International Training Institute (ITI) Abuja and is funded by the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and WAIFEM.

    The Workshop will draw participants from West African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin Republic, Niger, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea Bissau. The participants will come from the Central Banks and Ministry of Finance of the various West African countries, the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI), West African Monetary Agency (WAMA), BCEAO, ECOWAS and Media Houses (Television, Radio, Newspapers and Online publications) in the west coast.