Assessment of Nigeria Press Council as a Regulatory Mechanism for Journalism in Uyo
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the study
This study sought to assess of Nigeria press council as a regulatory mechanism for journalism in Uyo but succinctly,
- to find out, those constraints on journalistic practice in journalism;
- to determine how government influence affects media
- to determine the factors that provide the constraints on journalistic practice.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
The history of the media in Nigeria has always been characterized by two major forms of ownership. These are government (public) ownership and private ownership. Each of these forms of ownership has its peculiar hindrances. However, the focus of this study is not on these hindrances as a whole but those pertaining to the government-owned media of the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Several studies have been conducted on the constraints facing the practice of journalism in Nigeria. In this chapter, the researcher undertakes a review of some of these studies concerned with the stumbling blocks to the smooth-run of government-owned media in Nigeria.
Overview of Government Ownership of the Media
All forms of media ownership are driven by different agendas. Ownership is a principal determinant of independence. What then determines independence? According to World Development Report (2003), Ownership is a central factor of independence because it is the owners who control information flow and thus influence economic, political and social outcomes.
Ogbiti (2006:5) re-enforces this position when she asserts that:
the implication of government-owned newspapers are that governments fund, appoint board of directors, general managers and editors; thus they call the tune, as a result, each government-owned newspaper owes its allegiance to the ruling class and not to the tax payers whose money is the source of funding for the newspaper.
Government owned media depends solely on the government that owns them to provide support funds in addition to any other generated by the organization. Such support funds may include those for staff salaries and other operational costs such as procuring and maintaining broadcast and print media equipment. Most public owned broadcast organizations had over the years depended on this source since it was the responsibility of the government to provide financial assistance to its media organization. Okenwa, (1998:19) asserts that government subvention cannot be guaranteed in Nigeria. The overdependence of government media on government subvention makes these media subject to manipulation by their owners. Nwosu (1990:iii) cited Siebert, Peterson and Schramm (1963) as saying that the mass media should have the capacity of maintaining their financial self-sufficiency so as to be free from the pressures of special interest. Government ownership of the media enables it to exert a psychological and financial control over the media.
World Development Report (2003) is of the view that government control of the media could distort and manipulate information in the incumbent government‟s favour. In total agreement, Nwosu (1990:93) says most media in Nigeria are owned by government and so end up many a times serving as mere mouthpieces for communicating various government‟s activities at various levels. This, he continued, does not make for balanced, extensive and fair communication. Government-owned media have always been accused of not living up to their expectations. Onukaba (2005:2) opined that:
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The study adopted the survey design. The reason for this is that whenever the major source of primary data for a study is the views of members of the public or any particular group, a survey is better called for. The aim of survey is to provide empirical data collected from a population of respondents on which valid conclusions can be made. Therefore, research designs simply imply a comprehensive plan or blue print showing how the research will be used to solve the already identified problems.
Description of the research population
The population for this study comprised of only journalists in Uyo Nigeria. Sampling is the selection of some members or elements from the population for actual investigation or study. This selection is necessitated by the impracticability of studying the entire population in most cases. Therefore, Random sampling method was further used.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Introduction
This chapter deals mainly with the presentation of data. These data were gathered from the questionnaires duly answered by respondents.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Preamble
Literature materials available to the researcher on the topic lay credence to the fact that government owned-media (newspaper) are infested with myriads of constraints which has been the bane on the successful discharge of the journalist’s social responsibility.
The six media organizations in the south-south geo-political zone under study had same features and synonymous constraints ranging from employment of non professional to the appointment of unqualified persons into the management cadre of the organizations. These according to this research affect the level of productivity thus most of the studied media organizations are not keeping to the standards of modern newspaper.
Another constraint is management not given free hand. Being the fourth estate of the realm, journalist, be it in government-owned or private media should be given free hand to carry out their social responsibility to the citizens, the research show that government- owned media are strictly under censorship. At times they were meant to subject their reports to government officials for scrutiny before publication. In this way, government media has been reduced to mere propaganda agents promoting only its activities without the views or opinions of the governed.
Summary of Findings
This study is predicated on the need to have a free viable and independent media in Nigeria. Therefore, it set to unearth the basic constraints of journalistic practice in government owned media organizations in Uyo, Nigeria.
The study revealed that there are so many constraints militating against the professional discharge of journalistic practice in government owned media. These constraints range from Management not being given free hand to operate their stations, Poor remuneration of staff, Lack of modern equipment, Employment of non-professionals, Inadequate funding, Censorship, Termination of appointments to intimidation amongst others.
These obviously accounts for the reasons many prefer to patronize private newspapers to the public owned ones which has degenerated to government propaganda machines.
Conclusion
The role of newspapers in the education and dissemination of information cannot be overemphasized, thus, the study after thorough research, critically came to the conclusion that government media needs to be looked into with a view to improving its present performance and credibility.
The findings reveal that government-owned media are currently in a very poor state economically, managerially, technologically and politically.
Government need to put in more effort to upgrade and improve the performance of the media by tackling the above stated problems.
Availability of fund is imperative as no development could be achieved with nothing, therefore, government should define clearly ways through which these constraints will be efficiently and effectively curbed and this can only be achieved.
Recommendations
Arising from the research findings, the researcher wishes to make the following recommendations.
- Government should stop unnecessary and undue interference in the
- Unnecessary Censorship should be discouraged by the government and when it is inevitable, it is should be left for the media professionals to
- Objectivity and fairness should be the watch word of the Nigerian press in order to retain readership and even improve on their market
- Under-funding is inimical to the operation of any newspaper organization and should therefore be
- Obsolete equipment should be replaced with modern printing equipment in order to stand the challenges of modern newspaper
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