The National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Waheed Odusile, has called for the passage of the Media Enhancement Bill to regulate the profession and ensure regular payment of salaries of journalists.
Odusile made the call at the quarterly meeting of Zone B of the NUJ hosted by the Lagos State Council in Lagos on Friday.
He solicited the support of the National Assembly in the initiative.
Odusile said that several journalists worked without being paid.
He said: “In other climes, newspaper employers do not owe salaries but in Nigeria, they owe journalists.
“We want that law that will make workers’ salaries to be paid as and when due.”
The NUJ President called for the freedom of the press, saying “any attempt to cripple the press would affect the survival of democracy”.
According to Odusile: “Some amendments to the constitution are good, but we want to demand that it must be expressly stated that the press should be free in Nigeria.”
The NUJ President said the issue of fake news was assuming an alarming proportion.
Odusile said: “When people talk about fake news, they remember journalists, whereas we are not the publishers of fake news.
“Members of the society have not been able to differentiate who the fake journalists are.
“The only way we can make ourselves distinct is to know what our ethics say.”
Odusile said the union had begun a biometric registration of journalists in order to rid the profession of quacks who have infiltrated journalism practice.
He said the state of the nation was of greater concern to the NUJ, especially the threat to the unity of the nation.
He said: “We appeal to the proponents of division to take a back seat, talk about the unity of the nation and to promote things that unite us.
“Together Nigeria will be stronger, in spite of our teething problems.
“Hence the need for the restructuring of our country, both politically and economically.”
In a message to the occasion, the Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Steve Ayorinde, urged journalists to uphold high moral and ethical standards in the conduct of their duties.
Ayorinde, represented by the Director of Public Affairs of the Ministry, Toro Oladapo, wondered why various efforts made in the past did not remove quacks from the profession.
Ayorinde said: “How and what measures are we going to put in place to ensure that bloggers maintain high ethical standards?”
The commissioner described the forthcoming election of the Lagos State Council of the union as critical and urged members to see themselves as one body to set an example for other Nigerians.
The Chairman of the occasion, Bayo Osiyemi, also supported the call for the unity of the nation.
Osiyemi, who is also Chief Executive Officer of Penby Communications Limited, advised media owners to diversify in order to generate more income to run their media outfits to meet their financial obligations to their workers.
He said: “The operators of Newspapers and Television stations need to use the economic adversity in the land positively, in order to let journalists take them out of the recession.”
Osiyemi urged the press to live up to its responsibilities in information dissemination and agenda setting roles in various issues which include constitutional amendment, devolution of powers and other critical issues of national development.
The Chairman, Lagos State Council of the NUJ, Deji Elumoye, said the ongoing biometric registration for journalists would ensure that the minimum qualification requirement into journalism was adhered to.
Elumoye lamented the activities of bloggers whom he said often times published falsehood, but that the union could not sanction them because they are not journalists.
He said: “Bloggers are not journalists and those of them who are credible journalists are less than one-tenth.
“The gullible nature of the public makes them tend to believe bloggers.”
Also, a former Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Lateef Ibirogba, advised journalists not to allow themselves to be used for the selfish interests of self-serving politicians.
Ibirogba said: “Don’t let us be swayed by the antics of the politicians. If we stay as professionals, we would not be divided or swayed.”