…Urges Newsmen to Prioritize Self-Love Celebration in the Course of Their Duties
By Christiana Ekpa
The Minister of Information and Orientation, Mohammed Idris Malagi, has expressed the commitment of the President Bola Tinubu led administration to always ensure the freedom of the press.
He said this at a Press Freedom and Good Governance Awards organized by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Abuja on Saturday night.
He said the President, being a product of free press himself, would never do anything that would impede the press from carrying out its constitutional role of holding the government accountable and ensuring good governance.
Malagi said democracy cannot survive without a free press, as he urged the Nigerian media to always celebrate itself.
The Minister also charged the Nigerian press with the responsibility of combating misinformation and fake news especially with the prevalence of social media.
He urged that the media space must maintain its sanctity for the development of the country.
He said, “The Nigerian press that has always been free will remain free by God’s grace.
The Nigerian press will continue to be free.I know that we have had some challenges especially in the last couple of weeks concerning one journalist who has had some problems with the security agencies.That problem has been solved or is being solved. I’m being reminded someone told me today again that there’s another one. We are also working to ensure that that one is also resolved.
“Their work will continue unhindered and interrupted. The message that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has given you right from the time I was appointed as minister is that he is also a product of free press and therefore he would not allow during his tenure for free press to be trampled upon.
“Only yesterday the world celebrated the press freedom day and this year’s theme has to do with environment. For those of you in Abuja and beyond we had a live press conference at the national press center to commemorate that day. But someone made a very important remark that it was only one newspaper that actually the world press freedom day was reported on its front page. And I felt that was a very big challenge. You cannot be celebrating politicians and people in other profession and when it comes to your own you forget to tell the world that today is indeed your day.”
