Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong has urged the media to be mindful of the information they send to the public to safeguard peace, security and democracy.
He gave the advice in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, at the executive session of the 13th annual All Nigeria Editors’ Conference (ANEC).
The 13th ANEC organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), which held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has as its theme: ‘Nigerian Media: Balancing Professionalism, Advocacy and Business.’
Represented by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mark Longyen, the governor counseled the media to embrace responsible reportage and developmental journalism as their watchword.
He said: “The media can be very destructive when wrongly used, especially for political vendetta or mischief by the opposition or crisis merchants.”
The governor noted that the country was passing through serious security threats, noting that journalists have a duty to contribute in dousing the tensions.
He said: “Journalists should use their pens to safeguard peace, security and democratic governance rather than being used to fan the embers of hate and fueling the fragile peace by what they write.”
Lalong added: “In this era of global terrorism and insurgency, marauding herdsmen, ethnic militia and a viral Hurricane Maria-like social media, where killings, hate-speech and fake news take centre stage, with uncensored news flying at the speed of light, I urge the Nigerian Guild of Editors to urgently take deliberate steps to curb unbridled media impunity by sanctioning culprits, considering the dangerous implications of such unprofessional acts on the nation’s democracy, peace and security architecture.
According to him, “imbalance, inaccurate, inadequate or fake information, couched in hate or hatred can before, during or after a conflict, make people desperate, restless and easy to manipulate, thereby culminating in crisis of inadvertent, incalculable and unimaginable monumental proportions.
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