Tonnie Iredia calls for conducive environment for journalism practice

A former Director General of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Prof. Tonnie Iredia, has called on government at all levels to create a more conducive environment for journalism practice in the country.

He said the media should be allowed to function as the watchdog of society.

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Iredia made the call at the Edo State University, Uzairue, while delivering the fourth convocation lecture titled: “Fake News: Rethinking the Role of Mainstream and Social Media in National Development.”

He said to ensure good governance and accountability in the country, the media must be allowed to do their work freely without government interference while the Freedom of Information Act must be properly enforced. 

Iredia noted that government interference doesn’t allow the Nigeria media to function as the watchdog of the society as well as the nation’s agenda-setter as obtainable in order parts of the world. 

“Nigeria cannot give a mandate to the media in Section 22 of its constitution to make government accountable to the people while the same government proceeds to make a law to restrain the legal watchdog role.

“Except the media is allowed to play its assigned role, the lofty development initiatives articulated in the non-justiciable fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy in chapter 2 of our constitution will only be experimented upon to the detriment of posterity,” he said.

According to him, fake news has permeated the Nigeria media space due to social media influence where every citizen has become a journalist, adding that the highest ethical value in the media is truth which is not considered by fake news carriers.