First Rivers State Council On Information

Communique Issued At The End Of A One-Day State Council On Information, Hosted By The Rivers State Ministry Of Information And Communications On Thursday, June 13, 2013 At The Banquet Hall Of  Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt.

Preamble

The first State Council on Information hosted by the Rivers State Ministry of Information and Communications was held on Thursday, June 13, 2013 at the banquet hall, Hotel Presidential Port-Harcourt. The Governor of Rivers State and Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, His Excellency Rt Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, personally addressed the council and declared the meeting open. The former Chief Press Secretary to the first Military Governor of Rivers State and pioneer General Manager of the Rivers State Broadcasting Corporation, Chief Olu B. Fubara chaired the event while the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu delivered the keynote address. Other dignitaries in attendance were the Deputy Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Leyi Kwanee, President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Femi Adesina, National President, Radio, Television and Theatre Arts Workers Union (RATTAWU), Yemisi Bamgbose, Mrs Funke Opeke, CEO, Main One, and the National Secretary of Nigerian Union of Journalists, Shuaibu Usman Leman represented the National President of the NUJ, Mallam Garba Mohammed.

The Governor in his opening remarks enumerated various strides of his administration’s in the information sector. Highlights of this include, the release of funds for the establishment of a brand new studio and administrative facilities for the Rivers State Broadcasting Corporations (Radio Rivers), procurement of printing machine for the Rivers State Newspaper Corporation (TIDE). He, however, lamented the slow pace of the procurement process meant to ensure delivery of equipment for both Radio Rivers and the Rivers State Television.

Goodwill messages were delivered by the Rivers State House of Assembly, CEO of Main One, Mrs Funke Opeke, the Network of Broadcast Media, Rivers State, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Radio, Television and Theatre Arts Workers Union (RATTAWU) and Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR).

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communications, Mrs Jokotade  Adamu, gave the vote of thanks.

The council broke into five technical groups, namely:

1.  National Interest and Globalisation: Telling Our Story.

2.  Social Media and Public Information Management

3.  Guaranteeing the People’s Right to Know

4.  Coping with the Competition; Marketing Strategies in Today’s Media Environment

5.  The Role of Community Journalism

Resolutions

After extensive deliberations, the following resolutions were reached:

1.  Proper education of the citizenry is a critical factor to promote public access to information and good governance.

2.  Council called for synergy between information management and education as a vital tool for development.

3.  The main tool to mobilise the people is to deliver to the citizenry on promises made by the Government.

4.  Election as a process of democracy must be transparent, free and fair and votes cast must count and be counted as panacea for good governance.

5.  Government should support the quest of media professionals, civil society groups and all stakeholders that government information must be made open and accessible to the public.

6.  Stakeholders are enjoined to study carefully the Draft Information Policy and make necessary inputs.

7.  Government is enjoined to effectively use the social media for information dissemination, in addition to the traditional media, in order to reach a wider audience.

8.  While acknowledging that there may be no absolute freedom, Council urges the Government to uphold the right to know as enshrined in the Constitution and the Freedom of Information Act

9.  Media professionals are called upon to test the resilience of the Freedom of Information Act. It was noted that only very few journalists have accessed information using the Act.

10. Media professionals should practise journalism with responsibility and that journalism of patronage should be condemned.

11. It was noted that revenue is a live wire of all media organizations. Accordingly, there is a need to review marketing strategies to boost revenue for media organisations.

12. Council endorsed the setting up of community based newspapers to allow for citizens’ participation in the democratic process. There is also the need for community Radio stations to complement such efforts.

Conclusion

The participants expressed appreciation to the Commissioner of Information and Communications, Mrs Ibim Semenitari and the Ministry for the Novel Idea of the council meeting and called for its sustenance.