Journalists Urge Insurance For Practitioners

Journalists in Enugu State have called on all levels of government to provide insurance cover for practising journalists.

The journalists, who spoke in commemoration of Thursday’s World Press Freedom Day, lamented that there was no insurance cover for Nigerian journalists in spite of the day-to-day risks they faced.

The journalists, who spoke with newsmen in Enugu on Thursday, said government should provide protection for journalists to encourage them.

A veteran journalist who retired from the Daily Star Newspapers, Chief Odogwu Odoemena, said an insurance cover for journalists would boost the practice of investigative journalism.

“It has been overdue for government to take up this thing and pay insurance cover premium for journalists because their job is that of 24 hours, but they should ensure that the person is actually a journalist.

“What I ask media men is to continue doing their jobs irrespective of the hazards. What they are meeting now is not what had been scheduled for.

“They should continue; let them not be despondent and everybody should be working with caution equally.’’

Also speaking, the Regional Editor of the Leadership Newspaper, Mr Mike Ubani, called on media owners to organise better remuneration for journalists to enable them to function more effectively.

He advocated for the merger of weak media outfits or those that had become moribund to make them more vibrant and productive.

In her reaction, an editor in another media house said that adequate sensitisation of both journalists and the people would help in the implementation of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.

“I believe that a good number of journalists, the people that the bill was meant for to facilitate their jobs, equally do not know what is expected of them from the Freedom of Information Bill and that is why they are not using it for now.

“The level of implementation of the FOI Act is very low apparently because of lack of knowledge on the part of practicing journalists in Nigeria and even the public, the society.