May 3 every year would always be an important date in the life of every journalists across the globe because that date is set aside to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom, evaluate press freedom around the world, defend the media from attacks on their independence and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives while discharging their professional duties.
Without doubt identifying ones co-citizens is always an interesting endeavour at international events such as the World Press Freedom Day (#WPFD2015) where delegates from about 80 countries converge and exchange ideas.
Interestingly, the pride goes to the United Nation Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO Nigeria) over Nigeria’s impressive representation at the recent World Press Freedom Day held in Riga, Latvia.
The event, co-hosted by UNESCO and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, started on Saturday, 2nd of May with a side event where participants discussed Media laws, restrictions on civil societies and internet freedom.
At the event, it was as if no country was represented as everyone – black and white – wore the delegation identity card. Even the Nigerians hardly identified each other. But there were blacks.
However, the event of Sunday, May 3 was totally different as Nigerians appeared at almost every session held at the Latvian National Library to celebrate the country’s independence.
UNESCO also marked its 70th year of existence on that day which coincided with Latvian independence.
While back in Nigeria it seemed nothing was happening about the international event, the first plenary session saw Mr. Musikilu Mojeed, the Managing Editor, Premium Times as he
L-R: Mr Edetaen Ojo, Fackson Banda and Ify Aronu a youth-newsroom delegate at the side event held at Stockholm School of Economic in Riga, Latvia
discussed ‘Independent and Quality Media’ with others nationals on the panel.
The panelists agree that investigative journalism, in particular, relies on accurate, in-depth and critical reporting of matters of special public concern, which often requires long and difficult research.
However, the question on the lips of many was: What could be done to strengthen investigative journalism?’
While Mojeed was showcasing his prowess of digital media business, another Nigerian, Mr. Edetaen Ojo, the Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda, captivated the audience at another session with a topic: “Challenges for Freedom of Expression in the Digital Age.”
Discussants at this session agreed that digital revolution is impacting on all spheres of public and private life.
They maintained that more and more personal and public information is collected, stored, processed and shared through the Internet.
At this juncture, the plenary observed that journalism interfaced with wider digital environment and the policy decisions about it while attempting to proffer solutions to how journalists and journalism schools deal with such restrictions that impact on the production and distribution of online news as described in UNESCO’s World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development (2014).
What drew envious glances from participants at the event was the presence of yet another Nigerian at the Parallel session 2, this time a female, to discuss “Regulation, Sustainable Self-regulation and Professional Standards for the Media.
Ms. Ifeyinwa at extreme left Photo by David Lawal, Riga-Latvia
Ms Anthonia Ifeyinwa Omowole is the National President, Nigerian Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ).
She raised one key point at the session and that was “the more female journalists we have in the industry the more we would have at managerial positions.”
No denial, this is vital to journalism in Nigeria considering the lack of regulations for the Nigerian cyber space that permits unregulated flow of information.
More worthy of mention is that beside Latvia, the host nation that had about 12 young journalists and Finland, the host for 2016, which was represented at the event by eight budding journalists, Nigeria was the only country that had two young journalists at the forum.
Ify Aronu, an on-air personality at SplashFM Ibadan, Oyo State, and David Lawal, Online Reporter and Social Media Executive at The Nation Newspaper, were the two young Nigerian journalists that joined the UNESCO Youth Newsroom to cover the event.
Considering the challenges facing the Media in Nigeria – from traditional to digital – one would agree that the representation was worth it.
Meanwhile, one thing that the world may be anticipating soonest is how the event influences the Nigerian media.
“Is the story well told, does it reflect all the sides to the story, but basically does it help the people to take informed decisions, does it advance society in a way, does it help for change.” These were the words of Mr. Musikilu Mojeed, a Nigerian delegate at the 2015 World Press Freedom Day (WPFD).
The event, co-hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, started on Saturday, 2nd of May in Riga, the capital city of Latvia, with a side event where participants discussed Media laws, restrictions on civil societies and internet freedom.
It was agreed that freedom of expression is a fundamental principle of any democratic state without which citizens cannot make informed decisions and international laws require government to protect this freedom, particularly in relations to the activities of media practitioners.
However, the Latvian National Library saw a large attendance as the major event took place with different but interesting sessions, which all hinged on the theme: “Let Journalism Thrive – Towards Better Reporting, Gender Equality & Media Safety in the Digital Age”.
Speaking on Media and gender equality, Ms. Ifeyinwa Omowole, President – Nigerian Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) advocated for more women participation in the media. “The more women we have in the media, the more we are likely to have in managerial positions,” she stressed.
This session focused specially on the 2oth anniversary of Beijing Declaration and the platform for action. It would be recalled that the declaration, adopted by 189 governments at the 4th Women’s \conference, outlined 12 critical areas of concern that needed to be addressed. One of which is ‘Women and the Media’.
Mr. Edet Ojo, Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda in an interview submitted that the biggest challenge for the media in Africa is the availability of a lot of government and yet no government actors who attempt to restrict freedom of expression.
“They try to prevent you from saying things that they are uncomfortable about. But for other groups including terrorists groups, criminal organisations you find out that there are other forms of offline reprisals,” he observed.
In his opinion, the Scandinavian countries are the best in time of protecting journalists and freedom of speech saying: “They are open societies so they don’t really worry much about what their citizens say and maybe also, because the level of corruption in those societies are quite low so there is less concern.”
While the session on Regulations, Re-Regulations and De-Regulation came to the end, one point remained clear in the minds of participants, which is ‘If the media refuses to take up regulations for the profession, government will do because regulation is necessary anyways.’
Interestingly, the event this year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of UNESCO and equally the Independence Day of the country of Latvia at 25 years.
Thus, Ms. Anda Rozukalne, Chairman of the Latvian Association of Journalists disclosed that the country could not treat matters of press freedom with levity for what it means to them. “Press freedom is very important to us because it played a vital role in the acquisition of our independence,” she noted.
The next edition of the WPFD in 2016 will be co-hosted by Finland making it the first time the event is held in the Scandinavian region with the theme: Freedom of Information, the Right to Seek and to Receive Information.
It was noted that UNESCO intends to focus on this issue in Finland, as ‘Finland has been one of the strongest supporters of the freedom of information (FoI)’, Mr. Ming-Kuok Lim, Program Specialist in the Division for Freedom of Expression and Media Development of UNESCO.
The delegation therefore adopted the Latvian Declarations after the Finnish Ambassador to Latvia, Mr. Olli Kantanen, officially received the torch from the chair of the steering committee of Latvia, Ms Baiba Braze, in a handover ceremony
The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), on Saturday held a side event as part of activities to mark this year’s World Press Freedom Day (WPFD2015).
The event, which held at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Latvia had delegates from across the globe including a youth newsroom of about 12 Latvian journalism students and young journalists who hosted 20 other young emerging journalists, photographers, videographers, podcasters, and social media specialists.
Like the problem media faces in many countries of the world, the key topic of discussion at the side event was ‘Media ownership’; The Nation Newspaper is ably represented at the event.
With Ms. Pavla Holove of Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Mr. Tamas Bodoky, editor-in-chief of atlatszo.hu, it was realised that one of the major challenges of creating a fair and independent media content is the issue of who owns the media.
Youth Newsroom team members during a brainstorming session. Photo by David Lawal
According to a recent study conducted by OCCRP, political interests and even organized crime claim ownership of the largest media outlets in many regions of the world – Northern Europe in particular.
As the two major discussants engaged the topic, the question begging for answer was; “How can we ensure people will find the truth?”
WPFD is a UNESCO event to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.
Among such journalists is Peter Greste of Al-Jazeera who was accused of aiding terrorists’ activities in Egypt and was therefore detained for more than 365 days. Greste after his release said: “Journalism thrives when reporters are able to work without draconian constraint. Free media is key to free society, free debate, free ideas.”
The UN General Assembly proclaimed the International day in 1993 following a Recommendation adopted at the 26th Session of UNESCO’s General Conference in 1991.
This, in turn, was a response to a call by African journalists who in 1991 produced the landmark Windhoek Declaration on media pluralism and independence.
The main event is scheduled to hold on Sunday at the Latvian National Library, Mukusalas in Riga, the country’s capital city.
