By Celestine Okafor (Editor-in-Chief)
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), has advised the media not to focus only on reporting the enforcement mandate of the Commission.
The spokesperson for the ICPC, Mrs. Azuka Ogugua, gave the advice while speaking during the virtual Africa Business Ethics Conference (ABEC) 2020, organized by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) in conjunction with a Washington-based organization, Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE).
In a panel discussion on “Empowering the media and promoting press freedom to tackle corruption and strengthen accountability in Nigeria” Ogugua pointed out that the media has a good and major role to play in fighting corruption and enthroning good governance. She, therefore, called on the media to partner with the government not just to fight corruption by removing the negative, but also enforce and entrench the positive; enforce behavioral change and positive values.
Ogugua, who also heads the Public Enlightenment Department of ICPC, however, revealed that the Commission was in partnership with the media in the tracking of constituency projects. She further said that ICPC recently held two media roundtables in Abuja and Lagos on the National Ethics and Integrity Policy with the aim of taking it down to the grassroots.
Another panelist, the Director-General (D-G) of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Professor Armstrong Aduku Idachaba, noted that journalism as a profession is founded on trust, integrity, and transparency. The NBC boss said that his Commission as a regulator is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that ethical standards are being carefully followed. He advised journalists to always authenticate information before reporting.
Fisayo Soyombo, an investigative journalist in his contribution to the discussion, lamented that the media has been reduced to a mouthpiece in the fight against corruption, noting that they are usually brought in at the tail end when all must have been concluded, just to report. He, therefore, advised that investigative journalists should be seen as partners in the fight against corruption rather than journalists fighting the government. NNL.
