Nigerian media Monday will inaugurate a nine-member board of National Media Complaints Commission (NMCC) to strengthen public confidence in the media as a credible barometer of public opinion.
Former Managing Director, of the Guardian Newspapers Emeka Izeze, would chair the board comprising members who are drawn from the media, academia, judiciary and civil society.
A. B Mahmoud, SAN, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Prof Chinyere Stella Okunna, Deputy Vice Chancellor, (Academics) Paul University, Awka, Anambra State; Dr Hussain Abdu, a Development Specialist and Country Director, Care International (Nigeria) also featured the board list known as the National Ombudsman.
Others are Lanre Idowu, Editor-in-Chief of Diamond Publications Ltd. and Founder of Diamond Awards For Media Excellence (DAME); Edetaen Ojo, Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Dupe Ajayi-Gbadebo, a Journalist, Lawyer and Arbitrator; Eugenia Abu, Broadcaster, Author, and Columnist, and the Chair, House of Representatives Committee on Information.
The inauguration is an effort by the media industry to strengthen public trust through a prompt resolution of issues bordering on ethical breaches in media content.
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It is being driven under the auspices of the Nigeria Press Organisation (NPO,) which comprises the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), and the MacArthur Foundation.
The new commission will function as an independent venue for addressing complaints about the press, maintaining high standards of Nigerian Journalism and journalistic ethics, and defending the freedom of the media and the rights of the people to know.
