The Press Society, in commemorating the 2024 World Press Freedom Day, has charged the Federal and State governments to encourage press freedom, and protect the rights of journalists.
OYO NEWS reports that Elias Abayomi Adagunduro, the President of TPS said despite the fact that year 2024’s theme of World Press Freedom is a global charge at all governments across the globe oppressing and suppressing the press in the course of exercising its constitutional mandates
The NGO therefore charged President Bola Tinubu as a media mogul cum politician to trust, protect and promote journalists as they do their job.
Below is an excerpt from the statement;
“World Press Freedom Day was established to celebrate the value of truth and to protect the people who have valour to unearth it.
“World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 1993, following the recommendation of UNESCO’s General Conference.
“The Theme of 2024 World Press Freedom Day which is “A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the Face of the Environmental Crisis”
“The climate change narrative is crystal clear and well understood by literate and illiterate Nigerians in 2024. You feel heat even under the fan and air-conditioned (AC). There is high insolation of the sun on human and buildings. People who don’t have understanding about climate change became enlightened with our new reality.
“In Managing the ecosystem, the press has a mandate. The Media has a role to play in any democratic government. Section 22 of 1999 Nigeria Constitution as amended explicitly empowers the media to unearth the truth in any given circumstance.
“Since emergence, Tinubu’s government has been really fair to journalists but we want him to be more tolerant. As media mogul cum politician whose antecedents had reflected political will to turn things around in the country, TPS simultaneously joined the whole world to celebrate World press Freedom and also to charge our President to trust, protect and promote journalists in the cause of exercising their constitutional mandates”.