The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has lamented the poor remuneration paid to media practitioners and has, therefore, asked journalists who have attained top flight political positions to lobby for a good work environment for active journalists to be created by effective legislation and enforcement of media practitioners’ friendly laws.

In a statement by the National coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA stated its resolve to publish a list of mainstream media houses owing their staff except these defaulting media employers have a change of heart and pay living wages to journalists soon.

Citing section 22 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 (as amended ) which provides that “the press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people,” HURIWA lamented the poor work conditions under which media practitioners do their daily duties just as the Rights group said the duo who now advise President Buhari on media must use their high net value to ensure that media owners pay living wages to their staff.

HURIWA challenged all professional groups protecting the interest of journalists to wake up from slumber and improve the economic capacity of media workers who toil day and night to educate, inform and entertain the citizenry on their civic duties and responsibilities.

“Mr. Femi Adesina, Garba Shehu, Mohammed Garba and those former journalists now serving as national law makers must give back to their primary constituency which is the Nigerian media by synergising with relevant governmental and non-governmental agencies to ensure that effective laws are enforced to protect the employment rights of Journalists and introduce functional life insurance policy for media workers.”

HURIWA further asked the duo to ensure that Freedom of Information Act is respected by officials of this government if transparency and accountability are to become pivotal in the current dispensation.

The Right group stated that it is laughable that whilst journalists write and publish stories of state governors who fail to pay the state civil servants their lawful entitlements, these same journalists are also been deprived of their lawful wages. The rights group therefore called for stricter enforcement of employment laws and regulations to make it difficult for media owners to enslave their staff.

It tasked the erstwhile national president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Mohammed Garba, who recently bagged a political appointment in Kano State as the information commissioner to bring his vast experiences as a professional and manager of journalists to bear in broadening the scope of media freedoms in the North West State of Kano.

HURIWA said media freedom in that core conservative Northern State has suffered monumental attacks from some reactionary forces bent on foisting their brand of religious ideology to the exclusion of others.

•Photo shows Onwubiko.

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