• As Law Professor faults Supreme Court on Saraki

From Godwin Tsa, Abuja

NIGERIAN journalists have been called upon to always abide by the code of ethics of the profession in the discharge on their du­ties.

Editor, Daily Sun, Mr. Onuoha Ukeh made the call yesterday in Abuja at a roundtable on Reporting court proceedings by me­dia: Use and abuses.

He said this just as a Pro­fessor of law, Paul Idornigie (SAN) faulted the decision of the Supreme Court in the trial of Senate Presi­dent, Dr Bukola Saraki.

In his paper at the event organised by Law Media and Social Justice Devel­opment, titled: “Profes­sional ethics in reporting-problems, observance and solutions”, Ukeh expressed the need for journalists to always operate by the pro­fessional ethics, so as to en­sure professional integrity and credibility of journal­ism and the medium.

Making reference to dictionary.com, the editor defined ethics as “the rules of conduct recognised in respect to a particular class of human actions or a par­ticular group, culture, etc.”

He also said “ethics of journalism are the do’s and don’ts guiding the practice of journalism, to ensure professional integrity and credibility of journalism and medium. This entails what a journalist must do or must not do in the course of his or her job. It underlines truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, fair­ness and public account­ability. It must be noted that, although, they have the same guiding prin­ciples, the documentation of codes and standards vary from country to country as well as organisation to or­ganisation.

Onuoha urged media practitioners to also apply the Code of Conduct of the Nigerian Union of Journal­ists (NUJ) in the discharge of their duties including upholding and defending the principles of media freedom. Journalists, he submitted, must strive to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair. He warned journalists not to intrude into any­body’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest.

Ukeh further called on journalists to always pro­tect the identity of sources who supply information in the course of gathering materials for their work. Truth, he said, is the cor­nerstone of journalism and, therefore, every journal­ist should strive diligently to ascertain the truth of every event. “A journalist should promote universal principles of human rights, democracy, justice, equity, peace and international understanding.”

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Meanwhile, Prof. Idorni­gie has picked holes in the Supreme Court judgment on Saraki’s trial. He faulted the decision of the apex court which held that two members of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) can hear the case of alleged false declaration of assets filed against Saraki.

Prof. Idornigie, who is the head of Department of Commercial Law, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Le­gal Studies (NIALS), also said it was wrong for the Director General in the Ministry of Justice to have instituted charges against Saraki when there was a sitting Solicitor General in the ministry.

He noted that the provi­sions of the Constitution stated that the tribunal shall be constituted by three members but did not provide for quorum.

He wondered “what would be the decision of the tribunal, when a mem­ber finds an accused guilty and the remaining one member does not so find?” “There was a sitting Solici­tor General in the Ministry of Justice, but, it was a di­rector general who insti­tuted the charges against Saraki.

“I have issues with that. You can see that even at the Court of Appeal, there was a split decision amongst the panel of judges; these are areas that should be re­ported by the media so that our laws will be reformed,” he said.

He also frowned at the statement credited to the Economic and Finan­cial Crimes Commission (EFCC), where it said “no­body comes to EFCC and come out clean. It is the desire of any justice system to, at least, be seen as fair in conducting its adjudicatory functions.

Many legal systems af­ford specific protection to the presumption of inno­cence, which is an essential feature of the right to fair hearing.

According to section 36(5) of the Nigerian Constitution, “every one charged with a criminal of­fence shall be presumed in­nocent until proved guilty according to law.”