For the first time in the history of media in Nigeria, the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), got a resounding recognition in Lagos, Monday, November 14, at the all-important one-day roundtable attended by chieftains of the media, including members of the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria, NPAN, Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria, Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Nigerian Guild of Editors.

GOCOP has been in existence for eight years as a peer review mechanism but it has not been formally invited as a body to a meeting of media stakeholders as an umbrella organisation of online publishers in Nigeria. This marks the beginning of acceptance that online journalism manned by die-hard professional journalists turned mediapreneurs, who believe in the tenets of journalism practice, has come to stay in Nigeria.

Themed, “Media Roundtable: Deepening Media Professionalism through Co-regulation”, the event was also professionally piloted by former Governor of Ogun State, Aremo Segun Osoba, who was also the former Managing Director of Daily Times.

In her remarks, President of GOCOP, Ms. Maureen Chigbo, told the gathering that there was the need for all genuine operators in the industry to work together to wipe out charlatans masquerading as online publishers.

Chigbo appealed to the leaders to team up to prevail on banks and other major advertisers to deny the charlatans adverts and channel same to GOCOP member-organisations as a deliberate policy to empower the genuine online publishers and make the business self-sustaining.

She told the gathering that GOCOP, mindful of the need to raise the bar in online publishing, has instituted an in-house disciplinary committee and ombudsman mechanism to deepen professionalism and serve as a means for aggrieved members of the public to seek redress.

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