Leadership (Abuja)
Baba Yusuf
16 May 2008
National president, Nigeria of Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr. Ndagene Akwu, yesterday inaugurated a joint committee of the NUJ and the Nigerian Press Council (NPC) that would fashion out modalities for achieving an acceptable comprehensive welfare package for the media in Nigeria, and in particular, a condition of service that would be acceptable to all stakeholders.
Speaking at the ceremony in Abuja, Akwu recalled that the committee is a brain child of a workshop organised by the NUJ in collaboration with the African regional office of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in Abuja, in October, 2006 which gave comparative analysis of the acceptable standards of working conditions adopted by the West African Journalists Association (WAJA), Media Employers Organisation, the ECOWAS and the Francophone Inter-governmental Agency (FIA) at a meeting in Dakar, Senegal in November, 2004.
The committee's term of reference are a comparative analysis of conditions of service in Africa and other developed countries, using structures on ground and the prevailing conditions in the country; provide a draft scheme for consideration. Also to identify all the stakeholders in the media industry preparatory to the conference and circulate extensively the draft conditions of service submitted by the NUJ.
The NUJ president enjoined the joint committee to work assiduously in order to achieve the expected results, so that at the end of it all, the union should be commending by all the stakeholders for significantly improving the fortunes of journalism profession and all journalists and other media workers in the country.
Responding, the executive secretary, Nigeria Press Council, Mr. Godwin Omole, said that the council was happy to collaborate with NUJ in improving the standard of journalists in Nigeria.
According to him, protecting the rights and privileges of journalists is one of the functions of the council. "Our function is not just to receive complaints and adjudicate on matters concerning journalists, but also to improve the profession.
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