The Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) has organized a one day capacity building workshop for journalist with a call on them to project the image of the organization positively to the public by telling the people what the Standards Organization of Nigeria means, what they do and the benefits of the organization to them.
The workshop which took place in Lagos on Tuesday with the theme, “Improved Synergy to Promote Standardization”, had in attendance journalists covering the commerce and industry, properties and environment, brands, maritime among others.
Speaking during the workshop, the Director General of SON, Mallam Farouk Salim underscored the importance of journalism and journalists to the economy adding that apart from the military, journalists of all types were the most important group of people. According to him, the military only ranked above journalists because they physically defend the country, even as he posited that the journalists were the one that analyse, portray, extend and amplify in some situations and escalate in some situations whatever position they choose.
“So, if a journalist picks a negative aspect of our country and amplifies it, everybody else in the world including fellow Nigerians will only see that negative. But if a journalist picks up the positive aspect of this country and amplifies it, they will only bring other people in the country to think good about themselves that Nigeria is so good. So, the magnitude and importance of journalism in any society especially ours that is now we have the social media, we have print, we have the TVs, you have no idea what one write up can do to a whole country.
“So, ladies and gentlemen, journalism may not be the most highly paid profession in this country, it may not even be the most respected profession in this country but you individuals keep the fabrics of this country together. So, journalism, you may not think you are important, like I said, second to the military, you are number one in this country and whenever you take your pen to write something, put it back and ask yourself what am I trying to achieve? What goals do I want to achieve? What standard do I want to set? It is very important.
“So you have a serious assignment. I am not saying you should ignore the bad things that we have in this country but report it as a reporter. What that means is you report what you see not what was alleged or what was implied. If a person was lynched on the streets, report what you see, don’t colour it. Don’t put a direction to it because you don’t want to escalate, you just want to report what you see”, he admonished.
While harping that there was no better way to tell them that they were very important to SON, he pointed out that if journalists were important to the country, they would equally be important to his organization too.
He went on to say that “How the Standards Organization is viewed by other people including my superiors comes from the same prism from you. If the Standards Organization does good and you report it as doing good, the President will see that the Standard Organization as doing good. If the bad thing happens for any reason in our organization and somebody jumps on it and amplifies it, every other person will forget the good things that we did; they will only see the negative that our organization is doing. Your views are very important. Over the years; you have been partners to this organization, wonderful partners. We thank you, we expect you to give us more cooperation. We expect to work together and become a beacon of quality, standards enforcement for this country.”
Reacting to the speech by the Director General, SON, the National Chairman, Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN), Mr. Charles Okonji described the DG as someone who was on top of his game even as he insisted that the DG had done so well in a very short period and given the time ahead, he would move SON to a very great height.
He thanked the DG for approving their request for the workshop noting that even though the Covid-19 pandemic may have delayed its timing, it was still timely.
According to him, “With this, you have created standards for journalists and we appeal that you keep it up. We wish to appeal that it comes often so that we will report standardization and all it encompasses including the challenges properly and adequately. I will also make a call that you involve and engage all the 36 states governors like you are doing now, it has never been done before but we appeal that you incorporate them into this workshop that you are holding so that we can move it from state to state, so also that it can generate more momentum and drive your point home better.”
Others who spoke at the workshop were the Chairman, Properties and Environmental Writers Association of Nigeria (PEWAN), Okwy Chikezie as well as the President, Maritime Journalists Association of Nigeria (MAJAN), Ray Ugochukwu.
Journalists were given lectures on the various aspects of SON operations to better equip them to report the organization effectively and educate Nigerians and the business community on ways to effectively maximize the services rendered by the organization.
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