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To: IFEX Autolist (other news of interest)
From: Independent Journalism Centre (IJC), [email protected]>

MEDIA MONITOR
MARCH 17, 2002.

"h COURT RESERVES RULING IN DTN SUIT
"h FORMER SKETCH WORKERS DEMAND ENTITLEMENTS
"h REOPEN NIJ
"h NUJ VOWS TO UPHOLD ETHICS OF JOURNALISM
"h NACA BOSS TASKS MEDIA ON HIV/AIDS EDUCATION
"h REINVENTING THE MEDIA
"h SECOND CHANCE FOR NATIONAL INTEREST. WHAT WERE THE ODDS?
"h THE MEDIA FOR DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA (MFD) GROUP AND CREDO ON EQUITABLE
ACCESS TO THE BROADCAST MEDIA BY ALL POLITICAL PARTIES

COURT RESERVES RULING IN DTN SUIT
Daily Time, March 13, 2003
The Court of Appeal, in Abuja on Wednesday, reserved ruling to a later date
in the appeal filed by the Daily Times of Nigeria PLC, challenging the
ruling of a Lokoja High Court that issued a bench warrant for the arrest of
its Managing Director, Onukaba Adinoyi Ojo and Sunday Times Editor, Tunde
Ipinmisho.

A Lokoja High Court, presided over by Justice Sunday Idowu Lesley had on
June 26, last year, while ruling on an application the Daily Times boss
(second defendant) and Sunday Times Editor (third defendant) over their
alleged failure to appear before him issued a bench warrant for their
arrests.

Governor Abubakar Audu of Kogi State had, last year, instituted a N500
million libel suit against the Daily Times, its Managing Director and Sunday
Times Editor as aggravated damages over an alleged libellous publication.

However, dissatisfied with the decision of the High Court of Kogi State
contained in the ruling of Justice Leslie, the defendants/appellants
proceeded to the Court of Appeal, Abuja, praying it for an order of stay of
proceeding at the High Court, Lokoja and for an order suspending the bench
warrant issued by the lower court.

FORMER SKETCH WORKERS DEMAND ENTITLEMENTS
The Punch, March 13, 2003
Former employees of the Sketch Press Limited, under the aegis of the "Former
Sketch Workers Forum," have asked governors of the owners states to pay
their entitlements.

The workers, after a meeting of its members in Ibadan, listed gratuity and
other final entitlements,
outstanding salaries and allowances since 1998, deductions from workers'
salaries for National Housing Scheme, deductions from workers' salaries for
the company's insurance scheme and deductions for co-operatives savings.

"The former workers were disappointed that up till now, no action has been
taken by the owner-governors toward the re-opening of the newspaper house
within the first quarter of the year 2003. As promised by the Oyo State
Governor, Alhaji Lam Adesina, last December 30" the workers stated.

They said that since the struggle for the payment of their entitlements, no
fewer than eight members had died.

REOPEN NIJ
The Punch, March 14, 2003
It is unbelievable that the foremost Nigerian journalism school, The
Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) Ogba, Lagos, could be shut down for
two and half years running. The closure is
unprecedented in the history of the more than 30 years old institute.

The school was shut following students' legitimate demand for the
accreditation of the courses run both at the Ordinary and Higher National
Diploma levels by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).

The students' demand if granted, would have enhanced the value of the
institute's certificates in the
labour market, make admission into university stress-free for the products
of the institute and of
course, make it possible for them to take part in the National Youth Service
Corps (NYSC).

NUJ VOWS TO UPHOLD ETHICS OF JOURNALISM
The Punch, March 14, 2003
Ekiti State Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) has
reaffirmed its commitment to
upholding the ethics of journalism.

In a communique, at the end of its monthly congress, at the Press Centre in
Ajilosun, Ado-Ekiti, on
Thursday, the union restated its dedication to unbaised reporting of
political activities in the
forthcoming general elections.

Similarly, the congress called on the government to strengthen the
state-owned radio station, the
Broadcasting Service of Ekiti State (BSES), for it to meet the challenges of
the polls.

NACA BOSS TASKS MEDIA ON HIV/AIDS EDUCATION
ThisDay, March 11, 2003
Chairman National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA), Professor Babatunde
Osotimehin, has urged journalists to join in the fight against the Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) scourge. He said this has become
imperative going by the terminal nature of the disease.

Osotimehin, at an interactive session with newsmen, said to combat the
present scourge media practitioners needed to assist in enlightening the
masses through publication of educative informative feature.

REINVENTING THE MEDIA
Daily Times, March 12, 2003 (Editorial)
That most Nigerian media organisations are in distress is saying the
obvious. Failure rates are extremely high. Salaries are not only poor,
they remain unpaid for several months. Unpaid transport and other claims,
coupled with obsolete equipment, are proof of extremely poor working
environment. Most media organisations simply cannot pay their way, but even
the few viable ones undercut their workers by paying slave wages or paying
as their owners' whims dictate. In all these, the journalist is left
holding the wrong end of the stick.

This is regrettable and highly condemnable. If the society expects so much
from the journalist, shouldn't the same society ensure that the journalist
gets his due? Indeed, the danger posed by starving, and pimping journalists
are real. If therefore journalists whine over their unenviable state and
insist on being treated as special labour species, they deserve some
empathy, at least.

But that won't solve the problem. If most Nigerian media businesses are
today unviable, it is simply because they are chronically undercapitalized.
Media business is both capital and labour intensive. If investors in the
sector continue to think they can sacrifice quality labour for machines (or
vice versa), the result would continue to be dreadful. To ensure adequate
capitalization therefore, government should immediately put in place strict
regulations for investment in the media. That way, media owners would be
screened to ensure they have the wherewithal to run
the business.

But even that won't guarantee automatic success. Assuming that half of the
estimated 120 million Nigerian population is literate, the newspaper market
should be 60 million. If the current titles have effectively tapped into
even half of this figure (which is 30 million), there probably won't be any
talk of distress.

Indeed, it is doubtful if all the titles nation-wide today sell up to three
million copies. That, at a glance, shows that while most areas of the
market remain unexplored, a tiny, infinitesimal section is over-exploited.
In simple economic terms, the current newspaper market cannot grow because
diminishing returns have set in. Yet, for media workers to be adequately
rewarded, readership must grow, translating into far higher copy and advert
sales.

To grow the market therefore, media investors and professionals must think
critically, segment the market and identify a niche they can exploit. For
instance, must every newspaper be national, where regional and community
newspaperings cry for attention? Must every media house run huge bills on
transport and circulation, when joint ventures and strategic partnerships
can greatly drive down costs in these areas? Must every newspaper run
independent news and pictures bureau, when they can pool their resources and
share benefits?

Of course, such things are not obvious because prestige 'publishers' are
busy duplicating 'winning' titles and pushing fuzzy products into the badly
fragmented market. With no clear mission statements, blurred business
visions, bad product positioning, no enduring editorial culture to sustain
copy sales and advertisement, and journalists ever ready to enjoy the gravy
while it lasts, why won't titles die as soon as they are born?

The Nigerian media business clearly needs to re-invent itself. It is
tempting, really, to call on government to sanction wayward owners whose
media make money and yet don't pay their workers. But reinvention is the
ultimate solution. With a generally thriving media industry, unscrupulous
owners will either shape up or the market will throw them out.

SECOND CHANCE FOR NATIONAL INTEREST. WHAT WERE THE ODDS?
The Punch, March 11, 2003
Managing Director of National Interest newspapers, Mr. Ide Eguabor, gave an
insight into what amounted to lessons learnt from the newspaper's first
appearance as a major player in the Nigerian media industry, on Wednesday in
Lagos, saying that much haste in stable transformation aided its initial
stumbling.

According to him, one of the reasons why the paper went off the news-stand
was because of its hasty venture into daily production.

Speaking against the backdrop of the lessons which his organisation had
learnt from the initial unsuccessful attempt, Eguabor told our correspondent
in an interview that it took the paper just four months to move from weekly
publication to daily, which the system was not prepared for at the time.

Despite the above explanation given by Eguabor, a review of the newspaper
industry in Nigeria has shown otherwise. Apart from National Interest,
examples of newspapers like Anchor and others abound that promised so much
at the beginning only for the publishers not to be able to deliver.

Another example that readily comes to mind here is the Diet newspapers.
Though they have been repackaged as Daily Independent, one can only wonder
how successful they were on the news-stand.

While many of these publishers are quick to blame the high overhead cost for
the crisis that plagued their organisations one also cannot run away from
the fact that some of them were wrongly managed.

For example, there is evidence to show that many of these publishers lived
expensive life styles. Just like the public office holders, which they
condemned, many of these media owners dipped their hands into the funds
meant for running the business to acquire flashy cars and lodge in big
hotels.

So, before you knew it, problems started creeping in. Apart from the
inability to service their loan with the banks, staff salaries were slashed.
But even at that, it was no longer regular and, later, it stopped coming.
Whereas if the funds wasted on the acquisition of so many of these cars had
been expended on other important items, probably they would have managed to
survive.

Then, there is this other argument by some that it is not compulsory for
every newspaper publisher to own a printing press as many of them have been
doing.

According to this school of thought, the smaller newspapers should work out
an arrangement with the bigger ones to do their printing job since they do
not have a national spread yet.

The danger in doing that, some have also argued, is that of vulnerability as
the tendency is there for stories to be poached. Bearing in mind the
competitive nature of the business and the fact that every newspaper prides
itself on exclusive reports, some arrangements could still be worked out.

Better still, they could contract out their jobs to reputable printing
firms. Either way, they would be
able minimize expenses and save costs.

Another problem, which was identified as the cause of the failure of these
newspapers, was that of distribution. Many of them do not have a good
distribution system in place and that is why they have so many unsold copies
left.

Just like the case with the printing press, many of them purchase vans for
distribution and the cost of maintaining these vans are high. Such funds
could have been channelled elsewhere if they had embraced the option of
arranging with transport companies to deliver the copies at agreed spots.

Moreover, the editorial content and the quality of reporters, to a large
extent, also go to determine the success or failure of a particular media
house. After engaging a few experienced hands, many of these media
establishments flood their newsroom with inexperienced hands.

And so, what you have are poorly researched stories and headlines that do
not make for interesting reading in a market that is so competitive.

Having learnt their lessons the hard way, some have realised their errors
and are trying to retrace their steps. Let's hope they succeed.

THE MEDIA FOR DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA (MFD) GROUP AND CREDO ON EQUITABLE ACCESS
TO THE BROADCAST MEDIA BY ALL POLITICAL PARTIES

INTRODUCTION
This press conference is called as part of a process to develop principles
and guidelines for equitable access by the various political parties to the
broadcast media during this period of electioneering campaigns and beyond.

The project is being implemented by the Media for Democracy Group in Nigeria
(MFD) comprising Media Rights Agenda (MRA), the Independent Journalism
Centre (IJC), Journalists for Democratic Rights (JODER), and the
International Press Centre (IPC), in collaboration with an international
non-governmental organisation, CREDO for Freedom of Expression and
Associated Rights, which is based in Dakar and London.

Following the advocacy and legal victory that led to the existence of the
current 30 political parties in Nigeria, it has become critically important
to review the role of the media, especially the broadcast media, in the
electoral process. This is imperative given the capacity of the media and,
in particular, the broadcast media to influence and shape public opinion.

The failure to carry out such a process in the past has led to violent
conflicts triggered in part by the
use of broadcast media to undermine election outcomes and democratic
principles. The "Verdict 83" election programme on the Nigerian Television
Authority (NTA), for instance, attracted a lot of criticism for its highly
partisan coverage of the 1983 elections in favour of the incumbent National
Party of Nigeria (NPN) government. The importance of avoiding a repeat of
such a scenario cannot be overstated considering Nigeria's recent political
history since the June 12, 1993 elections and the lessons learnt from events
in other African countries such as Sierra Leone, Liberia,
Zimbabwe and Cote D'Ivoire.

A major cause of this problem is the tendency by those in power at both the
Federal and State levels to view the public broadcasting stations as the
propaganda arms of their governments and, therefore, to use them to advance
partisan on personal interests while preventing access to these media by
other stakeholders, including opponents and opposition parties.

We believe that the broadcast media, particularly the publicly funded media,
have an obligation not to be biased in their coverage of the political
process, and in particular to give all parties equitable access as part of
their social responsibilities to the society.

Since the government has neglected to carry out necessary reforms, the civil
society has to live up to its role of safeguarding of democratic principles,
including ensuring an open, accountable, transparent and democratic
electoral process.

The partners in this project propose to organise a one-day conference in
Abuja later this month in an effort to develop an agreed set of standards
for the coverage of the electioneering process by the
broadcast media. Participants at the conference will include:
representatives (management or senior editorial staff) of the NTA and the
Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) at the federal and zonal levels,
representatives (management or senior editorial staff) of public broadcast
media (radio and television) at state level; representatives of key
private/independent media; representatives of all the 30 political parties;
representatives of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC);
representatives of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC);
representatives of other various journalist associations and media bodies;
as well as other stakeholders.

KEY ISSUES
Broadly speaking, the key issues which need to be addressed are as follows:

1) How the editorial orientation and policies of the publicly funded
broadcast media (radio and television) at the federal level, i.e. the NTA
and the FRCN, can be reviewed in order to ensure that they do not deny other
political parties democratic visibility and that they are not used as mere
propaganda arms of the ruling party.
2) How the editorial orientation and policies of the publicly funded
broadcast media (radio and television) controlled by the 36 state
governments can be reviewed in order to ensure that they do not deny other
political parties democratic visibility and that they are not used as mere
propaganda arms of the ruling parties in the states.

Specifically, we propose to table the following issues for discussion and,
if possible, seek agreement on them by all stakeholders attending the
conference:

i. That all publicly funded broadcast media must, as part of their social
responsibilities, commit themselves to giving regular and free air time to
voter education programmes covering issues such as the voting process,
venues, time of elections, the political parties and candidates running for
election.
ii. That a limit number of brief and free slots for electoral campaign
broadcasts be given to all political parties to outline their programmes and
candidates for federal, state and local government elections. This is vital
to voter education and will ensure that at least all parties and candidates
are given the minimum visibility necessary for genuine democracy. This will
be particularly, important during the last month of the campaigns.
iii. That a ceiling be placed on the total number of election campaign
broadcasts that any one political party and its candidates can run over the
period of the campaigns. This will prevent the outright buying of the
elections by parties backed by richer members of society to the detriment of
the poorer parties.
iv. That no discounts be given to any one political party for paid election
campaign broadcasts and that if discounts are given, they should not be
selective, but should be across board and done in a fair and transparent
manner.
v. That all campaign adverts must be ethical, decent and must avoid
incitement, hate speech, and
defamation.
vi. That campaign adverts of any political party must not be rejected to the
advantage of another party. Adverts may only be rejected if they fail to
satisfy the requirements stated in Paragraph v. above
vii. That there must be a right of reply and correction for candidates that
may have been defamed.
viii. That the publicly owned media should not be used by incumbent
political parties to attack other political parties, and in particular that
government and party officials must not intervene in or undermine the
editorial independence of the broadcast media. This will also cover opinion
polls and election projections.
ix. That the safety, physical security and job security of journalists,
editorial and management staff of public and private media houses that
exercise the right to editorial independence from political intervention
must be guaranteed.
x. That the principles of fairness, balance and equitable news coverage of
political party campaign activities be observed especially during major news
broadcasts. This should include distinguishing between government
activities and campaigns.
xi. That there should be fair, balanced and equitable coverage of election
debates.
xii. That there should be no broadcast of any speculative results that may
truncate the will of the electorate and lead to conflict or violence based
on electoral disputes. Any results broadcast should at a minimum be based
on results obtained from polling stations and agreed by agents of all
parties present.
xiii. That disputed results should not be broadcast in such a manner that is
inflamatory and could lead to violent conflict.

These issues are based on universally agreed standards for election coverage
and the principles of relevant international instruments to which Nigeria
subscribes.

In the interim, we are constrained to condemn the widespread
commercialisation of political news, which we find unprofessional and
unethical and hereby call on media houses and individual journalists to
desist from such a practice.

We also urge the editorial or management staff of publicly or privately
owned broadcast media organisations in the country to discontinue their
involvement in the campaign activities of any political party, particularly
their inclusion on the campaign teams of political parties or candidates.

Media organisations must also ensure that all advertorials are clearly
marked as such. Sponsors of adverts must be named or mentioned.

We believe that the media and in particular the publicly funded broadcast
media must not be sued to undermine the democratic process, and therefore
call upon all political parties, government officials, INEC, the NBC, the
broadcast and print media, professional associations and unions within the
media, and the rest of civil society to join us in preventing such an
occurrence.

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