BENIN CITY-Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN, has tasked Nigerian media practitioners, on the need to subject news items for publication to test, as to whether such information should be shared about the country.

Governor Fashola, who stated this during the Executive Session of the 7th All Nigeria Editors Conference, organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors in Benin City, Edo State, said what should be of concern to every media manager in the country, was whether the “information best represent what I want to share about my country to the world.”

The governor noted “that every time an editor signs-off a story, it is no longer confined to the shores of Nigeria but received globally by virtue of the power of information technology.”

Governor Fashola who spoke on the theme of the conference, Deepening Democracy: The Role of the Editor, said: “Taken within the context of deepening democracy, Nigerian editors should be commended for the role played in the electoral process because they kept the people informed of how the electoral processes were evolving, especially during the last general elections.”

He argued that there was room for improvement in terms of performance by the editors, adding “part of the preoccupation of the editors within the context of good governance should be what do Nigerians do after the electoral process.”

Further he said: “As the fourth arm of the government, not funded from the public purse, how free the press is in any country is a strong measure of how democratic that particular jurisdiction is.”

Fashola reiterated that the media should recognise that it has a governmental and non-governmental role to play because it owes some responsibilities and duties in the process of nation building, which does not start and end with just reporting alone.

“In playing your role, you must refrain from taking a distant approach such as believing that government has or has not met your expectations. It requires your management of information prudently.”

Giving practical examples of how the Nigerian media could have managed some issues better, Governor Fashola, who cited the case of corruption, said the way Nigeria media reports issue of corruption makes it appear as every Nigerian was corrupt.

“Let us look at the way we have managed the corruption issue in our country. The way we managed it, one is tempted to think all of the 150 million people in this country are corrupt. Anybody who has never been to this country, who views this country and on the internet will be tempted to come to that conclusion and that cannot be the case.

“The evidence suggests that it is not. Undoubtedly, there are corrupt people but not all of us. I urge that until there is some conclusive and suggestive evidence that is compelling to command and compel an investigation, we should be very loathe to make those publications,” the Governor said.

Governor Fashola said with the way some stories are reported about proceedings at the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee meetings, the impression being created before those living outside Nigeria was that at every FAAC meetings money is just collected in several big bags and taken away to be distributed, whereas no cash exchanges hands but only funds deposited into specific accounts.