News

December 15, 2021

Don charges media practitioners on professional ethics

Help stop conflicts to achieve development goals, Presidential Aide pleads with media

By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja

An Associate Professor and Head of Mass Communication Department, Bingham University, Samson Shaibu, has charged media owners as well as practitioners in the country to be guided by the ethics of their profession and not allow the influence of “narrow identity politics” ruin their ideals.

Professor Shaibu, a one-time Acting Director General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), noted that the media was an institution built on trust hence, the practitioners should not do anything to betray the trust reposed in them by the public who rely on them on truthful information at all times.

He gave the charge in Abuja, at a press briefing for the unveiling of “The Trumpet Newspaper” and website, operated by Elomaz Communications Limited with headquarters in Abuja.

The university don, while acknowledging that the newspaper business was a rigorous and capital-intensive business, commended the publishers for the innovation they are bringing into the media, adding that The Trumpet is the first media outfit that is starting on five legs of digital technology.

“At Bingham University, excellence is our standard and watchword and I want to say Bingham identifies with you for this innovation you are bringing into journalism”.

Similarly, Dr Desmond Okocha, also of the Mass Communication Department and Coordinator of the Department’s Post Graduate programme, noted that the deployment of current digital apparatus by The Trumpet, will enhance the papers credibility and reliability for accurate, factual and timely reporting of news and events.

According to him, The Trumpet is set to carve a niche for itself by deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robot Journalism in its news gathering and dissemination activities.

Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of The Trumpet, Mr Endurance Edafewotu, stated that The Trumpet is hinged on the sanctity of a more balanced, factual, detailed and unbiased news on politics, business, entertainment, sports, religion, technology, culture, climate change and other emerging issues to millions of Nigerians both at home and in diaspora as well as the world at large.