OGUN NUJ PARTNER NANB

OUTCOME OF THE LECTURE

The Ogun State Chapter of Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ) under the leadership of Comrade Wole Sokunbi said there is no cause of alarm in creating a chapel for the National Association of Nigerian Bloggers (NANB) on Monday 18th December 2017. The meeting held at the state secretariat of the Union at Iwe-Irohin, Abeokuta the Ogun State capital was witnessed by the Chairman himself; Comrade Wale Adewumi, the Correspondents’ Chapel chairman; Honourable Habeeb Whyte (Legal Practitioner); NANS President and some dignitaries.

Comrade Wole Sokunbi during his lecture pin-point on what it takes to be a Blogger and Journalist, he said most of the bloggers are not journalist but because of what they want to gain, they carried rumour stories to generate traffic to their websites and spread it across to people. He said the freedom Bloggers are enjoying is because there is no law guiding them, and it makes it easy for anybody to wake up in a day and become a blogger, blogging different kind of stories.

Sokunbi said every Blogger is important to the development of nation building, because they will play a crucial role during the time of election, particularly in the coming year 2018 which we all know as the campaign period.

The Chairman said this event is just a tip of an iceberg because the Union will still organize an elaborate event and invite the Ogun State government under the leadership of Governor Ibikunle Amosun and other stakeholders in the state and across. He made it known that Nigerian Government, most especially the politicians need bloggers.

Sokunbi, while urging the association and its members said bloggers should not be bias in reporting for their clients, most especially the politicians. He said reporters should let politicians go on with their politics and should not allow politicians to see them as blackmailers and also should be very conscious of libel, slanders etc.

In his own remark, Comrade Wale Adewunmi who is the correspondent chapel chairman said journalism entails a lot of risk and journalist must be very watchful and careful about their reports to avoid libel.

He gave examples of what he had come across on the field and how he escaped being charged to court at different occasions. Also he urged members of NANB to make sure they know their members very well so as not to tarnish their image as many bloggers will emerged, claiming to be part of NANB.

While speaking, Hon. Habeeb Whyte who promised to be supportive and stand as the legal adviser for the association said he was once a blogger and online journalist, claiming he sold his website to someone when he had no time.

He pleaded to members of the association to be very careful about what they report because there are so many propaganda blogs online, and he as a legal practitioner, many personalities had come to him to help them file libel suits on bloggers.

The Acting President, Comrade Solanke while thanking the guests and the lecturers said he will not want to promise the NUJ chairman about the activeness of the members on reporting good stories but assured him that needful shall be done when the time comes and they will see not by word but by auction

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