The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on Thursday urged media practitioners to uphold ethics of the profession and all legal provisions guiding broadcasting, as campaign closes.
The Director-General of NBC, Malam Balarabe Illelah, made the call at a one-day capacity building workshop organized for Information Officers by Kano State Government in collaboration with NBC on coverage of the 2023 General Elections.
Illelah called for strict adherence to the provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code and the Electoral Act, to ensure sane airwave that would enable a free, fair, credible and transparent election.
He urged the media, particularly the broadcasters, not to allow any form of fake news, derogatory or divisive remarks and any incendiary broadcast on their platforms.
The NBC boss also said that campaigns should be devoid of hate speech, abusive, intemperate comments.
Illelah further said that media houses were also required to stop the broadcast of any partisan political programme, 24 hours to the polling day.
“A broadcaster is advised to end all partisan political programmes by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, 23rd of February 2023,” he explained.
He charged information officers to be fair and just while reporting the election process and collation of election results.
The NBC boss also urged them to work towards consolidating the country’s democracy.
Earlier, Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje urged the Information Officers to handle election duty with sensitivity and objectivity.
Ganduje advised journalists to always adhere to the rules of engagement while discharging their civic responsibility and avoid anything that can cause problems during and after the election.
Ganduje urged them to adapt to the digital journalism model that being utilized worldwide in the 21st century.
He urged members to continued to promote peace in the state and the country in their reportage.
The state Commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba, said that the workshop was organized to prepare information officers across the 44 local government areas for the 2023 elections.
Garba charged them to abide by the ethics of the profession.
Garba urged them to be non partisan in their reportage.
He urged them to share the knowledge with others.
Malam Abdullahi Yusuf, Senior Special AdvIser to Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje on Information, while presenting a paper titled, ”Role of Media in Elections Coverage”, urged them to be truthful, objective and fair in election coverage.
Yusuf, a former Deputy Editor-in-Chief, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), urged the Information Officers to manage or neutralize fake news reports about elections in their respective areas of coverage.
“I urge you to be at the polling units as early as possible to monitor the arrival of election materials, personnel and materials, as well as security arrangements made for the polls,” he explained.
He further urged them not to rush in publishing election results before the INEC official results, which most of the time, caused unnecessary problems. (NAN)
