Correspondents Chapel Holds 2019 Dinner …As Perm Sec Makes Case For Journalists

It was a night of fun, music performances and plenty to eat and drink from some Port Harcourt entertainers during the 2019 Correspondents’ Week of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Rivers State chapter recently.
The Correspondents’ chapel of the State NUJ kicked off activities for the week on Monday, December 2 and the curtains were drawn on Thursday, December 5 which was a day set aside for journalists to unwind, make merry and ward off work stress.
The chapel took out time to address issues affecting the state with the theme of the program ‘Role of The Media in Protecting the Rivers Environment’.
Speaking at the event, Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Information and Communications and Commissioner Designate, Pastor Paulinus Nsirim stressed the need for the welfare of journalists to be taken care of in view of the tedious nature of their job.
”We need to set agenda for ourselves as it relates to our welfare, nobody will do that for us. Let us interrogate why a publisher or a media owner will not pay salaries for one  to two years and such person still answers a publisher, food  for thought
“I am believing that this year’s Correspondents’ Week should do a lot of things for the media in Nigeria, a time has come when we need to stand up to say enough is enough, we cannot afford to be involved in slave labour,” Nsirim said.
He however, advised journalists to know their worth and always appear smart before the society in order to get the maximum respect they require from the public.
Also speaking at the event, the Head, Corporate Communications, Indorma- Nigeria Group, Dr. Jossy Nkwocha challenged journalists to top up their games and stop giving so much attention and importance to social media.
“Journalists are helping to take their jobs from them by making those who practice social media to look more important than they journalists; why do we have to take a very big story and do just a post on Facebook rather than doing a big story that can shake the system?
“I have seen so many things that journalists are doing that are undermining our practice and profession, I think we should go back and take back our jobs and we need to do that by being journalists not just someone on social media,” Nkwocha stated.

By: Agnes Onwuegbu