Mohammed Garba, the President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, has urged the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria and the National Broadcasting Commission to stop the hate advertisements in the media.
Garba made the call while addressing newsmen in Abuja on Friday.
He said the union had observed with deep concern the negative political advertisements by the two major political parties.
He said that the advertisements were unethical and urged the regulatory agencies to direct the affected broadcast stations to withdraw the advertisements.
He said: “We feel that it is unethical; and I want to use this opportunity to call on APCON and NBC to immediately stop these advertisements because of the consequences they may have for the democratic process.
“It is pertinent to draw the attention of our colleagues, especially the media owners, about the ethics of this profession.
“APCON and NBC should really screen some of these adverts before giving the go ahead to broadcast them.”
Garba further urged journalists to desist from acts capable of truncating Nigeria’s democratic system.
He added: “We believe that these adverts encourage hate speech and they are attacking the personalities of the two major presidential candidates.
“They are attacking the personality of Mr. President without bearing in mind that President Goodluck Jonathan is still the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“And we believe that the President and his office has to be respected
“We also observed that some of these advertisements attack the personality of former Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progresives Congress presidential candidate.”
The NUJ president urged owners of media to be mindful of the ethics of journalism profession and discourage any acts that could incite violence.
He, however, expressed happiness over the maturity exhibited by Nigerians after the postponement of the February polls.
Garba enjoined all Nigerians to exhibit maturity before, during and after the elections on the new scheduled dates.