Discussion
Details
service of Nigerian journalists with foreign journalists and project possible ways to bridge the gap between them.
In the first paper presented by Mr. Omar Zaid Tudunwada, General Manager Operations, Freedom Radio, Kano, it was claimed that up to 30 journalists are murdered annually in Nigeria, and up to 90% of the cases are unresolved, while a host of journalists are being harassed on daily basis.
Mr. Tudunwada describes the relationship between local and foreign journalists as one where every journalist want to be the first to break the news. This means there is a sort of competition not only between local and foreign journalists, but also amongst Nigerian journalists. He however gave a note of warning, that should not be competition between foreign and local journalists, as in most cases, their audiences are not the same despite the technological advancement that has brought world together to become a global village.
He cited the existing partnership between Nigerian media houses and foreign ones as seen in the case of Freedom Radio and Deutsche Welle, where journalists are sent to Deutsche Welle Academy for internship, and come back with more skills. He encouraged this to continue, instead of journalists seeing their counterparts as competitors.
Who protects journalists on duty became a question, whether it is the responsibility of the owners of media houses, or of the journalists themselves, or even the state. This comes up as reporting sensitive issues like terrorism and election campaign can have undesired results depending on how the issues are reported.
Mr. Paul Okolo, Mr. Thomas Mösch, Mr. Ubale Musa and Mr. Tim Aniebonam gave different perspectives to the topic of discussion, while the former Minisiter for Information, Alhaji Ibrahima Dasuki Nakande, the CEO of Unity FM, Jos, gave important contributions, which threw more light to political decisions of Managers and owners in the media industry in Nigeria.
