Media practitioners in the country and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) have adopted a policy framework for the protection of journalists.
The policy was adopted, Thursday in Abuja, as follow up to the pre and post-election workshops on the 2019 general elections and the decision from the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), with support from the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and the International Media Support (IMS).
The motion for the adoption of the draft policy, jointly produced by the NUJ and the NPF was moved by a former Chairman NUJ FCT Chapter Comrade Amos Dunia and was seconded by the Force Public Relations Officer DCP Frank Mba, who was represented by the Officer in charge of the NPF Bureau of Public Complaints CSP Ngozi Nwokeoma.
Giving the keynote address the Force spokesperson commended the NUJ, MFWA, IMS for the initiative.
Mba said democracy cannot thrive without cordial relationship between the media and the Police as well as other security agencies given the important roles they play in information dissemination and management and maintenance of law and order.
He expressed optimism that the relationship between the media and the Police, which has improved over time, would continue to improve as they work in the interest of the country.
Speaking at the forum, MFWA executive director Suleiman Braimah said, “Lack of understanding has been the major challenge, most times the police don’t understand properly what the media roles are and as well the police don’t seem to know when the roles of the journalists comes in.
“So the idea has been that we forge a collaboration between the media and the Police so as to achieve enhanced cooperation and enhanced understanding, they will understand each other and develop a framework that will guide their relationship.”
He pointed out that the Ghana Police administration has already adopted the framework which he said contains roles and responsibilities of the police and the media.
In a presentation titled: Framework on Police-Media Relations and Safety of Journalists in Nigeria, Professor Kwame Karikari, stated that cordial relationship between the Police and media was vital to the development and progress of society.
He maintained that the Police need the media for legitimacy which will make the public to have confidence in the services of the police noting that: “Therefore the two needs to keep working together in the public service, the two provide thankless jobs, the work of the two needs constant and high level of professionalism.
“The framework is to reinforce for both institutions their importance in cooperating and working together to promote and protect democracy in Nigeria, moreover what motivates the whole process is the safety of journalists in informing the public about the society.”
Also speaking NUJ President Chris Isiguzo said that the meeting was organised to chat way forward for the Police-media relations.
He said: “To ensure that democracy survives in Nigeria, the oxygen of democracy which is the media must not be toyed with. No matter how we approach governance let us not toy with safety of journalists.
“Journalists and the Police ought to partner, journalists don’t have guns, we are not terrorist or criminals we are partners in progress. We are at the point of adoption of the framework and if there is the need for legislation we will involve the National Assembly, the most important for us is the take-off, we may not have powers to implement directly but we are heading somewhere progressive.”
