The Chairman, Association of Local of Nigeria, ALGON, Enugu State Chapter, Hon. Frank Ugwu has charged Online Media Practitioners Association of Nigeria (OMPAN) to uphold professional ethics in the discharge of their duties as watchdog of the society.
Ugwu who described media as pivotal watchdog in society, said that media practitioners should be objective and unbiased in feeding the populace with information.
Ugwu who is the Chairman, Udenu local government area, gave the charge in Enugu when he received executive members of Online Media Practitioners Association of Nigeria (OMPAN) who paid him a courtesy visit at the ALGON office in Enugu.
He said: “Objectivity and fairness are needed now more than ever before as the country enters into another election year.
“I will harp on the need for you to be very objective in your reportage especially these days when a lot of people are losing trust in information being disseminated online. Your group should ensure that information dished to the public is reliable and authentic.
“The thrust of OMPAN is very laudable. Your ideals are very commendable because dissemination of information is very vital to any society and that is what you stand for.
“I really want to say that you are an important segment of our society and we need you as politicians.” Ugwu explained
He called on OMPAN to develop disciplinary mechanism to streamline operational guidelines of the body and ensure that erring practitioners were brought to book.
Earlier , the state Chairman of OMPAN, Emmanuel Jonathan, JP expressed the association’s readiness to partner all strata of government, individuals and businesses for prompt dissemination of information for rapid socioeconomic and political development of the state.
Jonathan commended the ALGON chairman for the support given to Governor Ugwuanyi by the grassroots governments to achieve his four-point agenda and extend other democracy dividends to the people.
“These achievements were the major reasons the Peoples Democratic Party and the good people of Enugu state overwhelmingly agreed to field Governor Ugwuanyi as the sole Governorship candidate for 2019 elections.
He decried lack of media coverage of
activities in the rural areas stressing that adding that “it is imperative to extend this partnership to ALGON as events and activities at the local government level are often not covered which makes it impossible for the citizens to truly appraise the performance of the people they elected into office.
“We believe that partnering the body of online practitioners will bring about spontaneous and coordinated dissemination of government information to the people who are always online seeking for information.”
On the Paris Club refund and federal government bailout fund, Jonathan commended the transparent manner the funds of Enugu state were judiciously disbursed to the direct beneficiaries (local government workers owed arrears of salaries and pensioners in the state).
This he said demonstrated that Ugwuanyi’s administration is people-oriented and accountable to the people and assured that OMPAN will be fair and objective in its reportage.
