By Olamide Adeyinka
Community media practitioners have been urged to exhibit high sense of probity and professionalism in the discharge of their responsibilities of informing the grassroots of the activities of the government and the goings on around their various communities of operations.
The Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Communities and Communications Hon. Akeem Sulaimon gave the charge on Thursday, while declaring open a two day training programme organised for the practitioners, at the Lagos Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
While upbraiding the practitioners of the negative impact of fake new now prevalent in social media, Sulaimon said, the deliberate publication of fake news if uncontrolled, “could lead to chaos and disaffection.”
According to him, the poor masses at the grassroots are looking up to the operators for reliable and factual information on developments within their communities and the activities of government, adding that only by consistently doing this would their medium win the trust it badly needed to continue to be in business.
He said the office of Communities and Communications in the Ministry of Local Government and Communications would continue to support community media practitioners adding that their training and retraining were aimed at equipping them with tools needed to be successful in the world of publishing and to help the government succeed in the business of governance.
He said: “Our government has seen the central role that the media can play in the socio-economic development of the people and is determined to assist the community media practitioners in fulfilling that role in the interest of the various communities in which they are operating.”
He said the government is happy to see that community newspapers have now become a thriving enterprise which is now contributing its own to the state and national development.
One of trainers Prof Alaba Adenuga had charged community media operators to develop technical, conceptual and emotional skills which according to him, would help them to succeed in their business venture.
Adenuga, who is of the Faculty of Education, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State charged the operators to support all government in power if they want to survive the slippery terrain of business.
On his part, the Director of Social Media in the Ministry of Information and Strategy Mr Deji Balogun urged community media practitioners to help in managing the information available in the public space in the interest of the society.
Speaking on Communities, Conflicts and Communications, the nexus, Balogun said as professional journalists, community media should avail themselves of correct, factual and reliable information from the government when in doubt.
He charged the publishers to be objective in their reportage, avoid overloading his readers with information available to him, and try to project the best in the state in their various publications.
The President of the Association of Practitioners of Community Media (APCOM) Mr Dayo Akintobi praised Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for his abiding faith in grassroots media which birthed the association of community media practitioners.
He said since 2015, community media practitioners have been enjoying the confidence and support of the governor who have continue to ensure the sustenance of their operations.
According to him, with Governor Ambode’s support, community reporting in Lagos State has regained its pride of place as the flagship of grassroots reporting which according to him was the bedrock of nationalistic struggle in the country.
He pledged the commitment of all practitioners of community newspaper in the state to continue to support the government in the dissemination of its activities in the interest of the people.