Uphold the ethics of journalism – Ray Ekpu

Former Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch Magazine, Ray Ekpu, on Saturday advised the media to uphold the ethics and quality of journalism.
Ekpu gave the advice in his speech entitled: “Media Quality, Quantity and Ethics” at the All Nigeria Editors Conference in Port Harcourt.
He said editors ought to be proactive in restoring the value of ethics to journalism practice because the profession was experiencing decay gradually.
He frowned at the reliance of some newspapers on mobile phone text massages and social media information for their stories.
He said: “Newspaper is a serious business, the use of social media massages on our newspapers is simply introducing illiteracy into journalism practice.”
In her speech, Wale Oshokubi, Chairman, Editorial Board of The Sun Newspaper, also expressed dismay over poor performance of field reporters.
Oshokubi said that one of the challenges of field reporters bordered on inability to identify what constituted libel and how to English language correctly.
Oshokubi, therefore, urged editors to step up recruitment process to ensure that only journalists who could add value to the media practice were recruited, advising the media institute to be more circumspect in admission processes.
She also challenged editors on continued training of young reporters in story writing, features and editorials to further boost writing skills.(NAN.