The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami has urged judiciary correspondents in the country to avoid fake news and hate speech in the course of discharging their professional duties.
Malami made the plea in Abuja, while inaugurating the newly elected executive officers of the National Association of Judiciary Correspondent (NAJUC) held at the Olusegun Obasanjo auditorium of the Federal Ministry of Justice.
According to the minister, media practitioners should respect the sanctity of the ethics of journalism at all times.
He said that journalists should avoid fake news, hate speech and other practices inimical to the concepts of fairness and objective reportage.
While describing the election of the officers as historic, Malami further acknowledged the invaluable contributions of judiciary reporters in the development of journalism and enhancement of the coverage of the judicial sector.
He assured the association of his ministry’s support for the media in disseminating credible, truthful, accurate and reliable information devoid of mischief.
The newly inaugurated executive of the association is headed by Mr Kayode Lawal of the Herald Newspaper as chairman, having defeated his rival, Mr. Kunle Olasanmi of the Leadership Newspaper having polled 23 as against the 16 votes scored by his opponent.
Other elected officers are Mr. Paschal Njoku of Daily Independent Newspaper as secretary, Femi Kuku of the African Independent Television (AIT) as financial secretary, Mr. Peter Bahago of Voice of Nigeria (VON) as welfare officer, Miss Vivian Okejeme of Peoples Daily Newspaper as treasurer and Mr. Basil Okafor of Core Television as the chief whip.
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However, the vice chairmanship position which was keenly contested by Mrs. Ifeoma Nwowu of the Radio Nigeria and Miss Tina Iria of Television Continental (TVC) did not produce a clear winner and will be decided through a bye-election.
In his acceptance speech, Lawal thanked the minister for finding time to inaugurate the executive committee and promised to sustain the cordial relations between the ministry and the media.
He also urged members of the association to support his administration, reiterating that his administration would strive to ensure regular training and retraining of members to improve on their skills of judicial reportage.
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