The chairman of the Nigerian Union  of Journalists NUJ, Rivers State chapter, Mr.
Opaka Dokubo has charged the management of Rivers State Television Authority
(RSTV) not to relent in churning out programmes that would benefit the
generality of the Rivers people despite the challenges facing the broadcasting
organisation.

Mr. Opaka, who was speaking when members of the State
Executive Council of the NUJ  paid a
courtesy visit to RSTV said the visit was intended to review and cement
existing relationship  between the state
NUJ and the TV house.

He explained that RSTV
was strategic and important to the Rivers people  and expressed
the  hope that the station would
meet the expectations of the people.

The NUJ  boss  reminded the management of the
competitiveness of television broadcasting in the state and called on them to
raise the standard of broadcasting  in
order not to be  out classed and thrown
out of business.

“If we do not raise our game, it would be a matter of time
before we are out of the business”, he said.

While acknowledging
the challenge of power generation faced by the TV house and its location
which is also a challenge to staff, he praised the doggedness of the management
for keeping the station going.

Mr. Opaka urged the staff, especially those of the NUJ to
put in their  best, adding that RSTV
was  not an obscure  organisation because its importance of the
national level cannot be overemphasised.

According to him, the state government has a lot to do to
make the RSTV grow in order to encourage the efforts of the staff  to compete favourably with a other television
stations in the state, so “government should make imputs towards that
direction.”

In his speech, the General Manager of RSTV, Mr. Tonye Ekong,
who was  represented by the  Director, Programmes, Oriselem Dokubo, said
that it was important for the NUJ and RSTV to work together as a team with
understanding.

She described the visit as a welcome development and
pledged, management’s commitment to ensuring quality service.

She said it was not possible to meet all the expectations of
the staff in view of the challenges of working with obsolete equipment.

The director of programmes said  the issue of cameras, lighting and power
generation was overbearing on the finances of the Authority and hoped that the
planned digitalisation of the station by 2015 would be realisable.

“Digitalisation is political and  in the hands of government just as the much
talked about media village”, she said and challenged members of the NUJ  to be more daring in their reports,
explaining, “we are the ones to bring to light what the people should know”.