Phillips Oduoza, CEO, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has called on Nigerian journalists to strengthen self-regulation of online media.
Oduoza made the call last week at the Abuja edition of “The Summit on Functional Social Networking for Journalists” sponsored by UBA, and organised by the Everything Journalism Group.
Represented by Charles Aigbe, divisional head, marketing and corporate relations, Oduoza noted that there was a rising trend of online pirates “whose only agenda in the online media space is to blackmail and spread false information about credible brands.
“It is critical that these online pirates are brought into check through self-regulation so that the government is not forced to introduce statutory regulations that may impact negatively on press freedom.”
UBA is sponsoring the media engagement programme with the hope that the discussions will provide a clear path way for the Nigerian media industry in the fast evolving digital media space, he said.
The summit, the second, after a highly successful first edition hosted at the UBA head office in Lagos February 2014, brought together top level media practitioners including senior journalists, bloggers, students of journalism and mass communication as well as media executives and government officials to discuss the future of journalism in Nigeria in the age of the internet.
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