Participants at the ActionAid media event to mark World Press Freedom day have harped on the need for a bailout for the industry, especially in view of the hard time occasioned by COVID-19.
“Stakeholders and government need to jointly develop a legal framework to guide and
effect bailout in the media industry without prejudice as applied to the banking,
telecommunications and aviation industry and without recourse to politicking its
intervention and abuse of power or as a means of control”.
Participants also observed that the downsizing in the media mostly as a result of COVID-19 is a security threat in view of the unemployment situation of the country.
This was contained in a communique issued at the end of the National Media Virtual Roundtable jointly organised by
ActionAid Nigeria and Journalists Against Poverty on the theme – Between Survival and
Existence: Media Objectivity in the Face of Dwindling Fortunes, in commemoration of 2020 World Press Freedom Day
According to the communique, “mass downsizing and job losses in the media industry may pose a security threat as
unemployment is a key driver of insecurity”
The meeting had 68 participants including journalists, media and public relations practitioners,
communication executives and representatives of civil society organisations.
The group also said the “Nigerian media is yet to be totally free from attacks and clampdown by the ruling
class and that Nigeria still ranks low on the table of countries with conducive
atmosphere for free press operation
“The financial crisis that is rocking the Nigerian media has now been compounded by
the COVID-19 pandemic, thus massive retrenchment is foreseen in the industry if there
are no urgent deliberate interventions by stakeholders”
Speakers at the event include Dapo Olorunyomi, Publisher, Premium Times Newspaper; Funke Egbemode,
Osun State Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation/ immediate past President,
Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE); ‘Sola Adebawo, Manager – Communications, Policy, Government
& Public Affairs, Chevron Nigeria and Mid-Africa, and Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Ene Obi