Assasination of Journalists: A case for ethical and professional emergency

Before Maltese journalist and anti-corruption crusader, Daphne Caruana Galizia, was bombed off on October 16, 2017, the pen profession upheld her as a voice for the voiceless and apostle of truth whose pen spared no oppressor of commoners.

Until her death, the President of Malta, including the Prime Minister, reports say, were victims of scathing criticisms by the 53-year-old journalist, fuelling allegations that her assassination bears the imprimatur of the
state.
While the identities of Galizia’s killers are still unknown, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, who led the funeral mass recently, had a message for the unknown killers: “However hard you try to evade justice of men, you will never escape from the justice of God.’’
For journalists across the globe, Galizia’s death is a sad reminder of unsolved murders involving pen professionals around the world. In Nigeria, for instance, Dele Giwa, a notable wordsmith in the print journalism, was bombed out of natural life on October 19, 1986 vides a parcel bomb packaged as a Greek gift. He was only 39.
Over three decades after a son of man blotted him out, his ghost still stalks the land.

But like Dele Giwa, there are other Nigerian journalists whose lives have been terminated abruptly and the identities of their killers have remained a riddle; some of them include:
Chinedu Offoaro (killed May 1, 1996), Tunde Oladepo (killed February 26, 1998,) – all of The Guardian newspapers; Okezie Amaruben of News Service, killed September 2, 1998 and Edo Sule Ugbagwu of The Nation Newspaper, April 26, 2010, among others.

Meanwhile, some stakeholders have decried the inhuman treatment meted out to journalists in the course of carrying out their legitimate duties.

This was the crux of the matter at this year’s celebration of World Day for Safety of Journalists held in Lagos recently when stakeholders converged on the NECA house, Ikeja, Lagos, to chart a new path for the
practice of journalism in Nigeria as regards safety.

Journalists as endangered species

Speaking at the one-day symposium organised by Trinity Communications, Publishers of Safety and Security Watch magazine to mark the 2017 World Day for Safety of Journalists, otherwise known as International Day to End Impunity of Crimes against Journalists on November 2, 2017, President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Mrs Funke Egbemode, charged journalists to enforce their rights to create an environment for the safety of journalists across the country.

Egbemode expressed dissatisfaction that Journalists are endangered species who are killed, jailed and manhandled for carrying out their legitimate duties.
Represented at the event by the General Secretary of NGE, Victoria Ibanga, Egbemode also harped on the need for self-examination among journalists, warning that it is important for journalists to shun unethical practices.

Ladesope Ladelokun