THE CHALLENGES OF FACING NIGERIAN JOURNALIST IN A DEMOCRATIC DISPENSATION (A CASE STUDY OF ENUGU METROPOLIS)
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Over the years, Nigeria has suffered a lot of intimidation, humiliation, harassment, imprisonment and frustration, under military leadership in an effort to fulfill their professional ethics. If well examined, history shows how Nigeria has suffered so much and also the effort made by Nigeria journalists to install and maintain a long lasting and genuine democracy. According to Umechukwu (1973:11) Minere Amakri” the Port Harcourt correspondent for the observer newspaper was arrested tortured and detained after his head was shaved with a broken bottle for reporting on impending strike by teachers in Rivers State. The story appeared in the observer on Governor Alfred Diettepitts birthday. In 1983, Raly Ekpu a reporter of the concord news paper was arrested and detained a day after Ekpu Published on article in which he said that the rate at which public building were being set on fire to cover up fraud, he would not be surprised if MET, which was reveling that fraud was on fire.
According to Ijendu Ihuaka a punch newspaper correspondent in Enugu, cases of harassment, threats and dismissal of journalists by government is an every day occurrence. He cited the example of Emmanuel one Ibadan correspondents who was asked to leave Enugu by the state governor he escaped death in the hands of assassins by diving grace of God. Wali Olu, a journalist in Imo State was beaten because of a story that he reported to Radio Nigeria Enugu on 19 October 2009. on the issue of blind people in Imo State protesting against government regretting on them. He told Radio Nigeria that when the blind people were protesting that no government official attended to them. Chief security of Imo State government house ordered his men to beat him up, after the story was aired on Radio Nigeria Network news. Some of these cases show that the press is not actually free in Nigeria. But though there was social responsibility theory of the press or mass media as propounded by sieber Petterson and Schram (1963) provided a functional model for the analysis of the journalist role in political evolution and maintenance of a genuine democracy and they include the following:
a. Making sure that the democratic system is serviced by creating the rightful avenues necessary for examples includes discussion and debate.
b. Creating an enabling condition or environment for the economy to grow strong especially through advertising.
c. Adhering strictly to the press council of Nigeria as this will boost the journalist his financial self sufficiency in order to be free from the pressure of government interest (special interest).
d. Entertaining the public with information and other well packaged programmees.
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