The President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr Waheed Odusule has urged public officials to partner with media professionals in the process of information gathering for better news dissemination.
Odusule made the call at the opening of a two-day workshop with the theme; “Journalism for Democracy in the Digital Age on Ethical Journalism’’ in Abuja on Thursday.
The workshop is being organised by the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), in collaboration with the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) for media professionals in Africa.
According to the NUJ president, the media remains a reliable partner in the development wheel of any society and every cooperation extended will help to roll the processes.
“It is clear that impunity against media professionals is unethical to democracy and good governance,’’ he said.
Odusule, however, urged media professionals to practice the profession according to its ethics, adding that they must shun bias reportage of events and remain steadfast.
He assured that the NUJ would continue to collaborate with FAJ to improve the capacity of its members, according to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN.
“This will ensure an improved press that will always be seen to be objective, balanced, decent and accurate, while dealing with our larger audience and listeners.
“This is because it is our firm belief that the survival of any democracy largely depends on a credible and unrelenting media,’’ the NUJ president said.
Odusule urged participants to pay attention to the workshop and expressed hope that the workshop would come up with suggestions on how to improve journalism profession in Africa.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop is being attended by media professionals from Mali, Togo, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Benin, Ghana, Cote d’ Voire, and Nigeria among others.