Gov. Dickson charges media practitioners to uphold professionalism

The Governor of Bayelsa, Seriake Dickson, Friday, called on media practitioners to uphold professionalism and patriotism while discharging its duties as the fourth realm of the estate.

Governor Dickson revealed this at the 3rd Annual Conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) in Lagos.

According to him, with the current situation in Nigeria, the media has a significant role to play even at a time when social media has been progressively active on posting unverified reports that could sabotage the national interest of Nigeria.

He maintained that the media remains critical far as deepening the democracy of Nigeria is concerned. ”The media must have that freedom to report the news while avoiding the distortion of facts.”

”Without the media, there is no democracy, ” he said. And the leaders must also imbibe the quality of tolerance irrespective of the fact that many social media posts and media reports were written out of contest.

He urged leaders to avoid clamping down on the freedom of speech and encourage vibrant media. ”If there is no freedom of speech, then, there would be a total absence of democracy, ” he said.