Union, Commissioner Fault Institute’s Blacklisting Of Akwa Ibom Governor

The recent blacklisting of Governor Umo Eno, of Akwa Ibom State by the International Press Institute (IPI) has continued to generate reactions with the state Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the commissioner for Information, Dr Aniekan Umanah and the senior special assistant (SSA) on National/International Media, Mr. Anietie Usen, describing the tag on their boss as a misnomer.

The state chairman of NUJ, Comrade Nsibiet John, ruled out any media repression by the administration, declaring that if such regime was being practiced by Governor Eno against his colleagues, he would have been in the forefront to fight it.

They, therefore, urged the International IPI led by Mr Musikilu Mojeed, as president, to review and reverse the sanction on the governor, noting that it does not reflect the friendly disposition and contributions of Umo to the media ecosystem in Nigeria.

LEADERSHIP recalls that the IPI had last week during the Institute’s Annual General Meeting in Abuja on the theme “Addressing Media Repression and Safeguarding Democratic Accountability in Nigeria.” announced the blacklisting of governor Eno, for withdrawing the accreditation of Channels Tv Reporter and Cameraman from Government House Press Corps.

Addressing a forum of Journalists Friday night at the NUJ Secretariat, Information Drive, Uyo, during the final ceremony concluding the Media Week, Commissioner Umanah, commended the NUJ, for defending the government in the alleged wrongdoing and appealed to the IPI, to remove the governor from the black book.

Speaking separately in his office, Mr. Usen, said the decision by IPI Nigeria to move against the governor was “possibly based on misinformation, disinformation and the absence of a thorough investigation into the routine withdrawal of accreditation from the Channel TV crew, who “without doubt, violated the rules of the game”.

According to the governor’s SSA, the affected Tv crew from a respected broadcast house had erred when it transmitted on an international space, a certain portion of the governor’s remarks, which had been officially declared as “off record”.

He said: “Off record remark is a time – honoured practice in journalism profession globally. Every journalist of integrity the world over is trusted to honour every material officially declared as off record. It must be noted that in a Press Corps of 38 journalists, the affected Tv crew of two, was the only team that violated these laid down rules, which I personally considered as ethical misconduct”.

According to Usen, a former General Manager and editor-in- chief of Akwa Ibom Newspaper Limited, “the curious aspect of this issue is that it was not the reporter who filed the embargoed story but his cameraman.

“While that unusual circumvention remained inexplicable, we had no choice than to request Channel Tv to kindly replace their crew and the Tv station obliged without any hesitation whatsoever. It’s as simple as that. Every solid organisation is run and driven by rules and regulations, otherwise you may wind up with some sort of anarchy in a sensitive environment like the Government House.

“As a core, infantry (if you permit that word) journalist myself, there is no way I would have accepted any form of sanction against another journalist, if these guys were on good professional grounds… I imagine the affected crew members were not just an embarrassment to us in the Press Centre but to their first class TV station in Lagos”, Usen said.

In the same vein, the SSA to the governor on local media, Comrade Amos Etuk, appealed to the IPI for a reversal of the sanction, noting that the decision was too hastily taken without proper investigation.