The Edo Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) is to set up an intervention team that will protect journalists while discharging their professional duties.
The state Chairman of the NUJ, Comrade Festus Alenkhe, disclosed this on Tuesday in Benin in an address during the celebration of the World Press Freedom Day.
He noted that the intervention team would help curb attacks on journalists by hoodlums and security agents while carrying out their assignment in a hostile environment.
The journalists’ intervention team, according to the Edo NUJ chair, will consist of personnel drawn from the military, police, DSS, and other relevant security agencies.
Alenkhe called on media owners, employers, and the government to provide a conducive atmosphere in which media practitioners could operate without molestation.
He decried the casualization of journalists and called on the government to look into the issue.
In a lecture entitled “Journalism Under Surveillance“, Dr. Dan Ekhareafo of the Department of Mass Communications, University of Benin, decried the government’s distrust of the media, corruption, and official secret acts which, according to him, inhibit journalism practice.
In their remarks, erstwhile NUJ State Chairman, Godwin Erahon, and the Head Pastor of Omega Fire Ministry, Benin zone, Pastor Azeme Azena sought better welfare for journalists.
They urged practicing journalists across the state to support Festus Alenkhe-led NUJ executive council to attain the desired objective of adding value to journalism practice in the state.