The Katsina State Commissioner for Information and Culture, Dr Bala Salisu-Zango, has said there was no need to have any law to regulate social media activities in the country.
\nThe commissioner stated this, weekend, at the opening of a 2-day training for social media users in Katsina, organised by the Katsina Times News Paper\/Magazine.
\nThe Tide\u2019s source reports that the training on digital media skills was organised in collaboration with Sardaunan Katsina foundation.
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t need any law to regulate social media, because the constitution has made everything clear, and the same thing with the penal code where any criminal law is there.
\n\u201cWe also have media communication laws and ethics, defamation, sedition, law of privacy, and other communication laws\u201d, he said.
\nAccording to him, the social media has come to stay, and there was no way to stop social media in the world, because internet has brought about citizen journalism.
\nSalisu-Zango noted that this opportunity existed in the country due to the constitutional provisions on freedom of expression and speech.
\n\u201cSocial media has very important function in the society, by performing all the functions that the mainstream media carry out. Therefore, I consider social media users as journalists like any other journalist. Nigerian constitution has provided an opportunity for them\u201d, he said.
\nAccording to him, if the participants will utilise the opportunity for the training, they will use the social media for the progress and development of their community and the country in general.
\nHe also called on them to understand media law and ethics, saying it will guide them to use the social media in a better way, especially on developmental journalism.
\n\u201cSocial media also provide job opportunities, because we are in an era where government alone cannot provide job for everybody\u201d,\u00a0 he said.
\nSalisu-Zango also called on participants to avoid using the social media for promoting rumours, incitement, fake news and lies, saying they should rather be objective and ensure balance in their reportage.
\nThe Police Public Relations Officer, Zone-14 Katsina, CSP Gambo Isa, called on social media bloggers and influencers not to allow themselves to be used in promoting fake news capable of bringing discord among members of a family, group or society.
\n\u201cNo matter the pecuniary gain, don\u2019t allow yourself to be used in destroying others. Do not allow your social media handles to be used for mischief, ensure you promote good conduct, assist the government, its people, and security agencies in the state.
\n\u201cAlways report positive achievements, especially on the ongoing fight against crime and criminality in the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Katsina State Commissioner for Information and Culture, Dr Bala Salisu-Zango, has said there was no need to have any law to regulate social media activities in the country. The commissioner stated this, weekend, at the opening of a 2-day training for social media users in Katsina, organised by the Katsina Times News Paper\/Magazine. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-icttelecom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=325219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325222,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325219\/revisions\/325222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=325219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=325219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=325219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}