Reflections on Media Performance

Set Up a Monitoring Body… Halliru Bashir Aliyu is an Abuja-based civil servant. He reads Daily Trust. Sometimes he buys copies of the paper and, at other times, he reads it online. His favourite sections in the newspaper are politics and sports. He also likes to read crime news. He sees potential in the news […]

Set Up a Monitoring Body…

Halliru Bashir Aliyu is an Abuja-based civil servant. He reads Daily Trust. Sometimes he buys copies of the paper and, at other times, he reads it online. His favourite sections in the newspaper are politics and sports. He also likes to read crime news. He sees potential in the news business and he believes one of the challenges the media must address is infiltration by quacks who masquerade as media practitioners. He wants journalism’s stakeholders to establish a monitoring body that would check the activities of unqualified journalists and restore honour to the profession. He commended the Media Trust Limited for its efforts in combating corruption through its policy of ‘no thanks’ to gifts and the whistle blower’s policy that encourages readers to report any unprofessional conduct on the part of its staff to the management. Haruna Aliyu believes that another way to combat corruption in the media is to improve the salary paid to journalists.

Halliru Bashir Aliyu, Abuja, 080-376069683

Organise training for your Staff and improve on proofreading

Atiku Muhammad Tanko is an avid reader of the Daily Trust. He buys a copy and sometimes read the paper online. He shared with readers what he likes about the newspaper which include the mastery of English Language by the writers. “The newspaper’s account is lucid and there is an attempt to be balanced in the coverage of news.” His favourite sections of the newspaper are fiction and travelogue. His recommendations for improvement are developing the company’s human resources by engaging more staff who will ensure that unpardonable mistakes oin the papers do not occur.  This will also add colour and flavour to the newspapers in the Media Trust stable. On media accountability, he said training and retraining of journalists through organising seminars and workshops would broaden their horizon on media ethics and reduce corruption in media practice. The most relevant group to tackle the issue of corruption in the media are the individual journalists who should resolve to abide by the rules outlined in Journalism’s Code of  Ethics. Like other readers, he also made a case for increase in the pay package of journalists.

Atiku Muhammad Tanko, 07031217278—Abuja

Create an Enabling Environment for Media Practitioners…

Mohammed Isa is a critical stakeholder in the media industry. He works at the Peoples Daily newspapers Abuja. As a news industry person he reads Daily Trust online and also buys a copy. He likes the news content, but the back page columns are his favourite section of the paper. Although he did not make recommendations on how the newspaper could be improved, he made comments on the need for media accountability. He said the following measures will go a long way in combating corruption in media practice: improving the welfare package for media practitioners and providing them with appropriate working tools. He also called for creating a legislative framework that would promote media practice. At the time, he was responding to the questionnaire, the Freedom of Information Bill, had not been signed although it was awaiting Presidential assent.  Mohammed Isa commended the policies put in place by the Media Trust to promote excellence in media Practice and urged the company to sustain it.

Mohammed Isa, 08037018944