A media practitioner and Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda, Edetaen Ojo, has said despite the huge responsibilities bestowed on the media in Chapter 2(22) of Nigeria’s constitution, media practitioners in the country are not doing enough in discharging these responsibilities.
Speaking at a workshop organised by the Human Rights Journalists Network Nigeria (HRJN), in Lagos, recently to commemorate the World Press Freedom Day 2024, Ojo, an expert in media law, argued that the 1999 Constitution gives the media the exclusive responsibility to perform certain roles.
One of such roles, he stated, requires the media to promote the universal principle of human rights, democracy, justice, equity, peace and international understanding and be committed to monitoring government’s compliance with the provisions of the constitution as they relate to fundamental objectives and the direct principles of state policy.
He argued that while the constitution sets out all the economic and social rights Nigerians should enjoy, the media at the same time is supposed to uphold those rights and hold the government accountable regarding this.
Speaking on environmental journalism, Adaetan stated that while there is a responsibility under the constitution for government to improve the environment and safeguard the water, air and land, forest and wildlife of Nigeria, the media is, however, not doing enough to highlight those responsibilities.
“There is a responsibility under the constitution for government to safeguard the environment. But can we say, as media professionals, that we are sufficiently highlighting these responsibilities? Do we see in the media significant reports that show that we are enlightening the public that government has the constitutional duties to improve the environment?” he asked.
Ojo, therefore, charged practitioners on the need to embark on in-depth investigation into environmental issues, so as to hold individual, government or corporate organisation responsible.
The Media Rights Agenda boss also urged practitioners to imbibe the culture of writing human interest stories, highlighting how communities are impacted by the action and inaction of state and non-state actors.
He, however, noted that for this to be achieved, the environment must be independent.
“If the environment is not independent, there is no way the media can report independently,” he stated.
In his remarks, the Executive Director, Human Rights Journalists Network Nigeria, Kehinde Adegboyega, explained that the symposium, organised in partnership with UNESCO Nigeria, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC), was to discuss the critical role of journalism in addressing environmental challenges and promoting human rights.
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