‘Blame Media For Rivers Crisis’

In what appears to be
an inquest into the role of the media in politics, veteran newspaperman  and one-time Editor of the defunct Sunday Tide, Chief Wofuru Okparaolu says the media must take the blame for the lingering political crisis in Rivers State.
He spoke at a recent media round-table on Rivers State Political Crisis: Issues on Media Ethics and Practices, held at the auditorium of the Rivers State Ministry of Justice, Port Harcourt.
Okparaolu, a former Commissioner in the Rivers State Local Government  Service Commission, noted that, “the Rivers State political crisis would not have been blown out of proportion if the media were objective in reporting and analysing political events in the state.”
Insisting that the media’s adversarial reportorial approach helped to polarise the polity and escalate the crisis. Okparaolu, currently the President of League of Veteran Journalists, Rivers State Chapter, regretted that the Nigerian media are no longer effective mediating institutions that once spoke for the numerous disadvantaged masses in Nigeria.”
From all indications, he lamented that the media now appears to speak less reliably on behalf of the oppressed while pandering to the rich. “As an institution it (media) has gravitated towards elite interests, converging with the powerful few who already dominate the social, economic and political arena.”
Warning that should the media fail in strictly  abiding by ethics of journalism,  especially in upholding objectivity, fairness and accuracy, it “will continue to fan the embers of national discord and ferment crisis that is capable of distabilising the polity as it has succeeded in doing in Rivers State.

Victor Tew