By Sunday Aikulola
Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, Martins Oloja, has said capitalisation and political economy of the country are affecting press freedom.
Oloja, who stated this, yesterday, during the 60th birthday of Prof. Jide Jimoh of the School of Communication, Lagos State University (LASU), noted that journalists and owners of newspaper companies are now talking about business aspect of journalism rather than the professionalism angle.
He said newspaper, television and radio stations are very expensive to run at this present time.
According to him, there is no where you can get newsprints in Nigeria, adding that newsprints are imported from abroad with high foreign exchange, making it difficult for newspaper firms to publish.
Oloja said some newspaper organisations had not paid their members of staff since January, and that running costs like diesel have also increased. He said: “We cannot increase the cover price and advert rate because of the economy.”
Speaking of the theme: “Conflict sensitive reporting,” Oloja advocated review of curriculum, insisting students must study how to handle financial and human resources of newspaper organisations.
He said students must attend business schools and study media management.
Source: The Guardian