The Nigerian Press Council (NPC) has said it is backing the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) on the application of caution in the enforcement of the Cyber Crime Prohibition, Etc (Amendment) Act 2024 as it relates to journalists.
Stressing the need for the Press to operate without fear or intimidation, the Council’s Executive Secretary, Dr. Dili Ezughah, remarked that freedom of expression remained the pivot of democracy.
He insisted that the press should at all times be free to uphold the accountability of government to the people.
The Nigerian Guild of Editors had at the end of its Standing Committee meeting in Jos, the Plateau State Capital, threatened to “use all legal means to ensure the protection of the fundamental human rights of journalists, freedom of the press and freedom of expression.”
Reacting, Dr Ezughah noted that “freedom of expression and of the press are the prisms through which democracy is viewed.”
The Executive Secretary, while urging security operatives to respect the rights and privileges of journalists in the lawful performance of their duty as partners in nation building, admonished media professionals to adhere to the ethics of the profession as well as all the extant laws regulating the industry, including the Cyber Crime Act.
He said the Nigerian Press Council would not relent in carrying out its statutory mandate of promoting high professional standards for the Nigerian press.
This, Dr. Ezughah said, the Council had been doing through capacity building of practising journalists as well students of mass communication/ journalism.
In a statement by NPC Director, Research and Documentation, Dan Ede, Ezughah said that this year alone, the Council had conducted workshops on ‘Public Trust and Ethical Journalism in the Digital Age’ in three geopolitical zones of the country, namely, the North Central, North East and South West, adding that arrangements were being concluded to cover the rest of the zones.
He observed that such capacity building workshops/trainings had greatly improved professionalism and ethical compliance in the nation’s media ecosystem.