Journalists have been cautioned that they have to be cautious about what they write, as one careless sentence from them might spell doom for a complete nation.
Professor of Mass Communication, Umar Pate, made the purpose in Yola on Saturday as a visitor speaker at an awards ceremony, stressing the necessity for journalists to at all times ensure of their details earlier than going to press.
In accordance with Umar Pate, who’s at present the Vice Chancellor of Federal College, Kashere, if an engineer makes a mistake, it would result in a constructing collapse, but when a journalist makes a mistake, the entire society might collapse.
Pate made the purpose in his presentation of a paper titled “The Media, Social Media and Nationwide Safety: Balancing the Free Movement of Info with Accountable Journalism in Nigeria” on the TGNews Awards 2024, a ceremony organised by a web-based information medium.
Prof. Pate who asserted that pretend or unbalanced information has been doing a lot hurt already, added that the state of affairs is worsened by the arrival of social media, which has led to the rise of “emergency journalists.”
He mentioned: “Emergency journalism is accountable for many safety points. The approaching of social media, by which anybody with a telephone and N100 knowledge can put up any materials they obtain, regardless of the character, high quality and supply of the fabric, has made a nasty state of affairs actually unhealthy.
“The damaging messages we placed on Fb create crises on-line and offline, and we’re regularly battling such issues. Flawed info poisons the psychology of our folks and creates avoidable conflicts.”
He instructed that, as a rustic, Nigeria must radically cope with quack journalism and the careless bandying of false information.
Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, former governor Jibrilla Bindow, former Secretary to the Authorities of the Federation Boss Mustapha, Nigeria’s first feminine admiral, Jamila Malafa (retd), Archbishop of the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria, LCCN, Musa Filibus (who doubles as president of the Lutheran World Federation), some politicians and businessmen, in addition to a cobbler and a groundnut vendor, have been amongst these honoured on the TGNews Awards 2024.