The role of the Nigerian press or media in decolonisation cannot be over emphasised, neither can their role in the struggle against neo-colonial dictatorship, military rule and imperialism. Indeed, the role of the media in the struggle for democracy since the 1980s is also well recorded and important. Out of this arose the tradition of what is euphemistically referred to as “guerrilla journalism”. There are four issues I wish to address in this article viz, the nature and state of the media in Nigeria, the professional and ethical issues, the media and political activities.
As the aphorism goes, every society gets the kind of leadership it deserves, but the media all over the world have tended to violate this rule. If you want to know or gauge the level of freedom or lack of it in any society, all you needed to know is the health of the media, how much freedom the media have. However, it should be noted that there is no society in the world where press freedom ever came cheap. All through the ages, press freedom had come at a price and struggles had been waged to ensure and sustain press freedom.
In Nigeria too, since the colonial era, there has been repression of the press, resulting in the shutting of media houses and assault on journalists. This tradition continued into the military era. However, all this did not halt the campaign for press freedom.
The media in Nigeria has been highly battered and highly compromised. It is now meant for the “highest bidder”. Many journalists have become so compromised that their reports are based on what butters their bread; news has now become what serves their patron’s interests. Increasingly, the proliferation of media houses, the weak supervisory role of the Guild of Editors and the Nigerian Union of Journalists, the lack of interests in building career in journalism as such and the greed and materialism of journalists have made it difficult for many journalists to maintain the standards and ethics of the profession. Worse still, some journalists do not know what constitutes minimum conduct and expectation of a professional journalist. This raises two other questions, first, the calibre and nature of those who call themselves journalists, second the induction and training offered them at recruitment by various media houses.
To be sure, journalism is an all-comer profession in Nigeria. People of diverse backgrounds and disciplines with mere “interest” in journalism or who are merely seeking job opportunities, automatically become journalists when such offers are made. Many essayists or writers can easily claim to be journalists, there are no rules of entry, or to restate the same thing, there are no rules for regulating conduct and practice of journalists or better still, enforcement mechanisms are weak. Most prominent people who are editors and news editors in many media houses today, never studied journalism or mass Communication, that is true. But I do not think that accounts for why they are morally wanting. Not studying Mass Communication is not and cannot be an excuse, because all subjects, all disciplines teach ethics and good conduct; so it is with and in all professions -there are best practices. But why are these not respected by journalists or enforced by media owners or professional unions?
The cheapening of professional and ethical standards in journalism has affected the quality of news and reports; and has introduced excessive biases, fabrications and partisanship in the conduct of many journalists. What happens is that many journalists are on the payroll of key established businesses, governmental and political interests. From time to time, these patrons get news syndicated and planted in the media. They also pay heavily to get news killed, the public interest, notwithstanding. Many people occupying the office of “Press Secretary” whether at federal state or Local government level, or legislative arm or even to former political office holders, are meant to achieve that purpose. Hence those positions in many ways have become means of compromising the press and quality of news.
The implication is that Nigerians no longer trust in what they read, they no longer believe what they hear, and rumour seems more authentic than what the media tells them. The result of the inaccuracies and falsehood of Nigeria media have resulted in a lot of litigations in law courts over libel and so on.
For how longer will the NUJ condone this practice? The unethical practices of journalists are also related in no small way to poor pay. Many journalists are grossly underpaid and this has compromised them in no small way in the discharge of their professional and social responsibility. It may be argued that this is not peculiar to the journalism or journalism as a profession, but it is most tempting for some journalists, the choice between collecting or rejecting gratification is quite complex. I hasten to add that some of those journalists are also greedy and opportunistic. Such bad eggs should be severed with the profession.
There is no where Nigerian journalist has shown misconduct, sharp and unethical practices and lack of respect for the readership than in reporting of political activities or political office holders. The media have been unfair to some politicians and unduly patronising to others. Facts are sacred and this must be recognised as a cardinal principle of the practice of journalism. Professional Journalism has been grossly compromised in Nigeria and induced with money, such that quite an impressive number of them have been compromised. Everybody knows about his but very few are courageous to speak out openly about it. That is self-censorship and it is wrong particularly because such unethical conduct is not restricted to just reporters but to higher level of journalists, including Editors and Managing Directors and in some cases, publishers. The last political electioneering clearly showed that. Every news item bore the imprint of the interest of a political aspirant. Even after the elections, journalists continue to be subservient and loyal to their patrons. This has made the journalists to lose self-respect, as they have become highly compromised; they know this as well as do their patrons.
They inform their patrons about incoming “damaging” news about them, they promote, protect, gatekeep and defend the interest of their patrons in the news. Often times, the same news story is reproduced verbatim in four or five print media and more often, the news story was written by the same journalist working with a media house and on the payroll of such politicians.
The implication of all this is that nobody respects journalists or news emanating from media houses, any longer. Increasingly the reading audience has become indifferent, if not cynical to news stories in the media. News is now ridiculed and caricatured as make-believe of journalists. Media houses are having less and less reading audience and less and less listening or viewing audience, depending on whether it is radio, television or the print media.
This ought not to be the case. There is need to return to the basics. Media owners must allow their media houses to operate freely without interference, media proprietors need to improve the welfare and working conditions of journalists. It is bad enough that there is often no pension scheme in many media houses (thanks to the Obasanjo administration that tried to rectify this for many category of workers); however, it is important that journalists go home with a good pay packet; this will give them self-confidence and fortify some of them against tempting gratification. This will still not stop the greedy ones but it will stem or mitigate the current tide.
The Guild of Editors and the Nigerian Union of Journalists at the Branch and national levels must enforce their ethical rules on erring members. Above all, journalists must go through training and retraining and internalise best practices and core values. They must know that certain forms of conduct impinge on their professional and morality thus making negative impact on the society at large.
In the end, every journalist should know that their conduct will haunt them one day. They may feel that they have discretely, if not clandestinely, stuck deals with their patrons, but one day such information shall become public knowledge and whatever a journalist may have put into the service, will be lost or extremely diminished by such disgraceful and compromising disclosure. Just like the relationship between the medical doctors and the patient, the journalist stands in a strategic position as mirroring and informing society about itself. Misleading, deceitful and misinforming news constitute the highest crime against humanity any journalist can commit, especially when this arose consciously or as a result of inducement by patrons.
All hope is not lost; journalists involved in such shameful acts can still redeem themselves and give a better image to the profession. Journalist can not be critical of the society and shy away from being critical of the conduct of its members, it is a case of “physician, heal thyself”. The consequences of not heeding this clarion call is that in the end, not just the bad eggs in the profession but everybody will be perceived in the same way as the bad ones-the kind of mindset Nigerians had of the military in time past.
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