The Edo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) is to set up an intervention team that will protect journalists while discharging their professional duties.
The State Chairman of the NUJ, Comrade Festus Alenkhe disclosed this in Benin in an address during the celebration of the World Press Freedom Day.
He noted that the intervention team would help curb attacks on journalists by hoodlums and security agents while carrying out their assignment in a hostile environment.
The journalists intervention team, according to the Edo state NUJ chair, will consist personnel drawn from the military, police, DSS and other relevant security agencies.
Alenkhe called on media owners, employers and government to provide a conducive atmosphere in which media practitioners could operate without molestation.
He decried casualisation of journalists and called on the government to look into the issue.
In a lecture entitled “Journalism Under Surveillance”, Dr. Dan Ekhareafo of the Department of Mass Communications, University of Benin, decried government’s distrust of the media, corruption and official secret acts which, according to him, inhibit journalism practice.
In their remarks, erstwhile NUJ State Chairman, Mr Godwin Erahon, and the Head Pastor of Omega Fire Ministry, Benin zone, Pastor Azeme Azena sought better welfare for journalists.
They urged practising journalists across the state to support Festus Alenkhe-led NUJ executive council to attain the desired objective of adding value to journalism practice in the state.