I have been at various fora where I got introduced as a veteran journalist, who was Editor of several publications, Sunday Triumph, New Nigerian and Citizen magazine. I never asked them why they deemed it fit to introduce me as a veteran when I did not give anyone notice that I had retired.
When you reflect on the working style of reporters you wonder whether they ever retire.
The reporter may physically retire from a particular media job, or move to the now attractive and lucrative jobs of being Press Secretaries to Governors, Ministers and Embassies etc. Those who move from routine reporting assignments to take up jobs in public relations departments of banks and oil companies have more interesting stories of change in fortunes and affluent to lifestyles to tell those of us who never walked those paths. Whatever position they get promoted to or choose to retire to, the expectation is that the curious and inquisitive mind of a journalist never retires.
A distinction should therefore be made between the journalist ' s physical retirement and the mental activism of the reporter ' s mind in and out of appointive or even elective offices. Many reporters feel deprived and sometimes do get frustrated when they are unable to express their views on issues they feel strongly about simply because they are not in active journalism. The reporter ' s instinct of living up to the constitutional role assigned to them, of surveying the environment and monitoring the process of governance, holding the leaders accountable to the governed remains strong.
Reporters cringe and shift in their seats when they read some news stories and commentaries. A reporter gets disturbed with the one sided news and sensational ones that are currently dished out to gullible readers. One would then wonder what happened to journalism ' s code of ethics.
You are told to your face that unless you bribe reporters, your events and causes no matter how just would not feature in the media. You are reminded that the brown envelope syndrome is now so well entrenched that for every event you organise, a public relations budget (another name for brown envelope) is a necessity. You are reminded that reporters are poorly paid and face the ravages of inflation.
You are also reminded that some of your colleagues who were senior reporters have not helped the cause of journalism. They establish media outfits, refuse to pay reporters livable wages, while some media proprietors even tell reports that their staff identity card is their meal ticket. They should devise innovative ways of using it to maintain themselves With media proprietors like these, what other endorsement do you need for brown envelopes to take root and journalisms ' ethics get thrown to the wind?
The rot is setting in. What this underscores is the need to restore glory to journalism.
One option is to recall the journalism teachers, and veterans and assign them to conduct journalism training workshops for those who need them.
All journalists must be taught the basic techniques of reporting and must have the basic knowledge of and live according to journalism ' s code of ethics. Only last week my colleague Sylvanus Namang, former editor of The Nigerian Standard in an advertorial (Daily Trust 23/11/06) raised some issues about who qualifies to be a journalist. This debate is not new.
We are still at a stage in the development of journalism when media practitioners are debating whether journalism is a profession or a craft. Adherents of one school of thought have always argued that journalism is a craft and cannot be compared with other professions such as engineering, medicine, law etc. Anyone of these three require special training and have established bodies that regulate their practice and which all professionals must register with.
Examples of these are the Council of Registered Engineers of Nigeria COREN, for engineers, Nigeria Medical and Dental Council for doctors and the Nigerian Bar Association for lawyers. Of course journalism has practitioners drawn from diverse disciplines; we have had excellent reporters and managers of newspapers who graduated as biochemists, zoologists, accountants, teachers of arts, philosophers, lawyers, physicists etc. Some of them learned on the job and became excellent journalists.
Yet some media practitioners still refer to this category of journalists as the gate crashers it is them against the us the students and graduates of journalism. I do not have any problem with the diversity of disciplines in the newsrooms On the contrary, I consider it as a mark of strength since the journalist is essentially a jack of all trades and master of all. Journalism is a calling that requires the practitioner to have a broad knowledge of various disciplines and the various disciplines and the specialized sectors to which reporters are assigned confirm the need to diversify a journalist ' s knowledge base.
We have reporters assigned to various desks, such as science, education, health, defence, courts/crime, business, sports, labour, women, energy, consumer affairs etc. While diversity is appreciated, every new entrant into journalism should understand what it takes to be an efficient and responsible reporter. In addition to whatever qualification one brings to journalism, some basic skills should be provided to the new entrant.
The revised Code of Ethics for Nigerian Journalists was approved by Nigerian Press Organization comprising the key professional regulatory bodies for journalists. They are the Nigeria Union of journalists, NUJ the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE and the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria NPAN. The code demands the implementation of the minimum eligibility criteria for entry into the practice of journalism in Nigeria as contained in the Nigerian Press Council Decree no 85 of 1992.
According to this decree, the minimum qualification for journalists to be registered by the NUJ is a training recognized by the Nigeria Union of Journalists NUJ so acquired with the cognate experience recognized by the NUJ. Such a course must be conducted at an institution approved or partly at one such institution and partly at others . In addition to been trained at an approved mass media institution, the journalist is also expected ' to have a general professional orientation which covers the basic requirements of information art leading to a qualification not less than a diploma and has good knowledge of the politics and socio economic affairs of his society acquired from an approved institution as stated in the code.
The issue at stake is to ensure that we abide by our code of ethics which makes a diploma in journalism the minimum qualification for entry into the profession. We agreed on self regulation and it is our duty to honour our pledge as stated in the Ilorin Declaration (1996) We also affirmed that self regulation through a code of ethics and other structures drawn up by professionals would best serve the interest of both the profession and the public. There is need for introspection.
Journalists who want to hold others accountable should also be able to earn that respect that a publicist should command.
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