Date Published: 09/12/11

NUJ boss vows to fight quacks

The National President of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Malam Mohammed Garba, hasrestated his administration’s determination to eliminate quackery in theprofession.

Garba, who visited the Correspondents’ Chapel of the NUJ in Port Harcourt onMonday, said fake journalists were portraying the profession in bad light.

He urged state councils and chapels of the union to arrest and prosecute anyunqualified person claiming to be a journalist.``We must all be together in this fight to rid the profession of quacks; tell those who have no medium to stop attending assignments and if theypersist, invoke the laws against them,’’ he said.

The NUJ boss also assured journalists that the move for a better pay packagefor media workers would yield results.

``We are still hopeful that the move will be successful, we are only allowingthe government to implement the new minimum wage first,’’ he said.Garba, who called on journalists in the country to refrain from being usedto write damaging reports, urged them to utilise the opportunities provided bythe Freedom of Information Act.

``The FOI law affords us the opportunity to do our job better; let us applyfor information and see how forthcoming those in authorities will be,'' he said.

(NAN)