The Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, an umbrella body of senior media editors and executives rose from its recent three-day All Nigerian Editors Conference, ANEC, in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, with a call for a comprehensive bailout package to cushion the effects of harsh economic policies.

The complete removal of subsidy on fuels and aspects of electricity, as well as the floating of the Naira which shot the prices of production inputs through the roof, are threatening the survival of the media, especially the large corporate traditional outfits, which employ over 90 per cent of media practitioners in Nigeria.

Though the NGE recognised the long term gains the reforms embarked upon by the President Bola Tinubu administration are expected to yield for the economy, it called for immediate measures to ease the strains imposed on the productive sector, particularly the media, which largely depends on imported inputs for production.

This is a reminder for the Federal Government of the promise that President Tinubu, a major media stakeholder in his own right, made to the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria, NPAN, at Aso Villa on December 22, 2023, that he would carefully review policies to bring relief across the industry.

Having played critical roles towards the independence of Nigeria from the British colonial masters and led the struggle for the end of military adventurism in government, the media occupies a central position in our democracy. Apart from facilitating the civic liberties of the citizens and upholding their constitutional right to freedom of expression, the media are mandated by the Constitution to hold government accountable to the people.

Indeed, the media as a collective is fondly called the Fourth Estate of the Realm. Though many media houses are owned and funded by the government, majority of the independent media have to fend for themselves as business outfits. Independent media plays the dual roles of sentinels of our democratic society and employers of labour. Government has an obligation to ensure that its reform policies do not wittingly or unwittingly push the media towards extinction.

Apart from the need to offer generous bailouts to the media and other sectors of industrial production, we share the NGE’s concern over the palpable up-tick in harassment and intimidation of journalists over the past year. Never in the past 25 years of our return to democracy have we had it so bad. This is most unexpected from a regime led by a major stakeholder in the media sector.

We call for a more conducive environment to discharge our duties and thrive as businesses to the glory of our country and its democracy. The Nigerian mainstream media remain the bastion of professionalism and bulwark against fake news and media abuse, especially in an era where just about anybody can post anything on the internet.

The media must be protected.