Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, Femi Adesina has made it clear that what the President wants is a responsible media instead of undue favour from it to him and his government.
He said also that the President and his administration do not believe in muzzling the press or the voice of opposition, and would never do so.
Femi Adesina, who spoke today, Thursday when he chaired the First Annual Conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), in Ikeja Lagos, said that President Buhari is more comfortable with responsible, fair and factual press than the one which tilts the truth just so as to favour him or to discredit him.
The Presidential spokesman expressed worry over the danger posed to the health of the nation by unregistered online news media as well as social media generally.
He made an example of the recent unnecessary dust which the social media raised concerning the health status of an elder statesman, Arthur Nzeribe.
He also made reference to several negative and hate speeches made by the same social media about the health status of President Buhari, all aimed at embarrassing the personalities involved.
Femi Adesina commended GOCOP for sticking to the ethics of journalism profession, which is why, he said, he had always been involved in its activities, even during the process of its formation and registration.
He announced that because of the strict adherance to professionalism, most of the GOCOP members, if not all of them, have been made members of the Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE). He was the NGE President at the time President Buhari appointed him his special adviser on media and publicity.
Earlier, the outgoing President of GOCOP, Muskiliu Mojid, had rolled out some stringent conditions and guidelines for admitting any online publisher into the Guild, among which is that, the publsher must be a practicicng Journalist at senior level for not less than 10 years.
Mojid, who is the Editor-In-Chief of PREMIUM TIMES, said other conditions for publisher to be admitted into GOCOP are that, the platform of such publisher must have been registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) with identifiable office and that he should have at least, two functional reporters, among others.
He said that the Guild started about four years ago with just five members, and that the number had now risen to over 40.
Mojid stressed that members of the Guild are constantly being monitored ny themselves to ensure that they don’t use their platforms to intimidate, extort and carry out other unethical practices on members of the public.
Highlights of the Conference was lectures delivered by erudite scholars and the inauguration of the new executive of GOCOP, with Dotun Oladipo, publisher of The Eagle online as President. He and other executive members were elected last night at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Guild.[myad]
