Ahead of the 2023 elections and proliferation of fake news, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) is seeking the adoption of ‘Global Ethics Charter for journalists’ by media professionals in the country.
National President of the NUJ, Chris Isiguzo, made the appeal at a digital journalism and fact-checking workshop held in Lagos State.
The workshop, sponsored by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in collaboration with the NUJ, with the theme: “Imperative of Digital News Verification for 2023 Elections,’ was facilitated by PR Nigeria.
Isiguzo said that although experts believe fake news is one of the greatest threats to democracy, free debate and good governance, it is journalism or information that deliberately misleads people and distorts reality by spreading false information and others.
According to him, the idea of a journalistic ethos is not only to provoke discussion on ethical and moral issues in journalism practice, but also intended to provide a philosophical basis for journalistic ethics and set conceptual framework for working at and appraising the many hazards in modern journalism practice.
“While there is nothing like ethics and morality in the social media, and by implications in the general information disorder we find ourselves in, it is prosper to encourage accountability in the mainstream media and in whatever we do as media professionals,” he said.
The NUJ boss further said that journalists’ responsibility towards the public takes precedence over any other responsibility, in particular.
He, therefore, urged the media to take its environment into account when performing the role of transmitting information to members of the society.
