The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria HURIWA (HURIWA) has hailed the establishment of the Ombudsman otherwise known as the National Media Complaints Commission, headed by Emeka Izeze.
HURIWA said the Commission would strengthen the abuse of human rights and unprofessionalism of quacks who parade as journalists, especially bloggers.
Its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, at a press briefing yesterday in Abuja, said: “The concern of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) is on the rapid decline of media ethics about the total disregard of media laws by media organisations especially those of the Online genre.
“We in HURIWA are amongst the few groups that support freedom of the press in line with Section 22 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 as amended.
“HURIWA is however worried by the misdemeanours that have continued to emerge and challenge the ways and manners that the media practitioners ought to practice their profession.
“Journalism in Nigeria shouldn’t be a trade but a profession. There has to be a way to bring online reporters under some kind of self-regulation as the newspapers and broadcast industries have done with the broadcasters organisation of Nigeria and the print media ombudsman that is headed by erstwhile MD of The Guardian newspaper of Nigeria Mr Emeka Izeze.
“We applaud the newspapers for this bold step. We are aware that online publishers have an organisation or maybe two organisations.
“But online publishers should be categorised under print and should therefore be regulated by this National Newspaper Ombudsman, headed by Emeka Izeze.”
Meanwhile, Onwubiko described as ‘fake news’ an online report in which a military officer who is undergoing court marshal alleged that the former Chief of Army Staff, Major General Tukur Buratai, asked him to pay Saudi Arabia some money so he obtains citizenship.
He claimed that even when the military corrected the online platform, it still went ahead to write another story against Buratai.
He said: “The summary is that Sahara Reporters alleged that a Major General who is undergoing court marshal alleged that his former boss the former Army chief asked him to pay Saudi Arabia some money so he obtains citizenship.
This is fake because our findings show that Saudi Arabia is rich so doesn’t need outsiders to pay them to buy citizenship.
“Buratai has no Saudi Arabia citizenship and why did SaharaReporters go to press with such a falsehood without verification?”
