By Oluwaseun Sonde
Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has announced that Nigeria will be hosting the 2022 Global Media and Information Literacy Week, making the country first within the subregion to host the event, while soliciting support of all relevant stakeholders for the success of this global event.
The Minister who disclosed this when he attended virtually the occasion of the presentation of the UNESCO World Report on Freedom of Expression 2021/2022 at the Regional Forum for West Africa on Thursday, appreciated UNESCO for its efforts at promoting an enabling for the entrenchment of freedom of expression and the safety of journalists.
According to him, "The report being presented will further provide our leaders, media administrators, practitioners and indeed various stakeholders in the information sector insights into the successes achieved and the multidimensional challenges to freedom of expression and media development, within the context of our various legal frameworks.
"It is a well known fact that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right enshrined in our various statutes and legal mechanisms. And it is also a key feature of democracy across the world. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights captures this succinctly".
Lai Mohammed recalled that over the years, countries have made efforts to liberalise the media landscape by making it conducive for practitioners through adoption of laws in this regard.
"We have also seen the glaring need to protect journalists, as well as build their capacities to conform to the
ever-changing standards of practice, especially with emerging technologies and particularly social media. UNESCO has provided leadership in this regard".
The Minister made bold to state that Nigeria has a vibrant, pluralistic and
free press, and this would not have been possible without an enabling
environment. "I reiterated this point when I received the executive members of the Nigerian chapter of the International Press Institute (IPI) at my office in Abuja recently.
"At that meeting, I restated the commitment of the present Administration, led by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, that under our watch, the media will never be seen as a threat, but as key partners in progress of our dear country.
"At this juncture, please permit me to say that in Nigeria, we have made the freedom of expression not just a guiding principle but also a key priority, just like the safety of our media practitioners", he said.
He noted that since his assumption to office, he made it a point of duty to
regularly engage with several stakeholders in the media space, with a view to strengthening the information sector and building the capacities of our media practitioners for better service delivery.
"I have met with journalists under the various umbrella unions, media owners and executives, online media practitioners and bloggers, among
others, in this regard. As a Ministry, we have organised seminars, workshops and symposia for media stakeholders.
"A key workshop organised in collaboration with UNESCO in 2018 was on Conflict Reporting and Safety of Journalists. We have also been celebrating World Press Freedom Day yearly by organising symposia, the last time being in 2021 when we held a symposium themed Journalism as a public good", he added.
He made it known that the Ministry is organising, in collaboration with UNESCO and other partners, a workshop in celebration of World Press Freedom Day, after the global celebrations this month. "We remain resolute in determination to continue to provide the enabling environment for media practitioners to thrive within the ambits of our laws.
"It is instructive to note once more that the freedom of expression we enjoy comes with huge responsibility. It is sad that some of our compatriots in the journalism profession take advantage of this time to engage in hate speech and to spread fakenews. That was why we launched a national campaign against fake news and hate speech in 2018, a campaign that has brought the issue to the front burner of national discourse".
Lai Mohammed urged journalists within the West African subregion to join hands with governments to curb the activities of such journalists who taint the image and good works of those of us who desire to uphold the ethos and professionalism of this very important profession.
As a step towards the realization of this, he called on journalists and
media houses to set up a fact- checking desk, so as to arrest the
prevalence of misinformation, fake news and hate speech in the society.
"I wish to commend UNESCO and its partners for putting up this report", assured that Nigeria will study the report and the recommendations contained therein with the seriousness it deserves.
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