By Law Ibitoye
The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ekiti State Council, has declared a sustained crackdown on quack journalists and individuals impersonating professional media practitioners across the state.
The State Chairman of the union, Comrade Kayode Babatuyi, disclosed this in Ado-Ekiti during an anti-quackery exercise, saying the campaign was aimed at sanitising the media industry, protecting the integrity of journalism and preventing impostors from using the union’s identity and insignia to perpetrate crimes.
Babatuyi said the increasing use of smartphones and social media had made some individuals falsely present themselves as journalists, stressing that owning an Android phone or operating a social media platform did not automatically make one a professional journalist. He warned that the exercise was only the beginning, assuring that those apprehended would be prosecuted in accordance with the law.
Also, the Chairman of the Ekiti NUJ Anti-Quackery Committee, Abiodun Olofe, urged members of the public to deal only with properly identified and certified journalists to avoid misinformation and fraudulent activities. He said the NUJ had introduced official identification stickers to help the public distinguish genuine practitioners from impostors.
Olofe declared that the anti-quackery campaign would be a continuous exercise, rather than a one-off operation, adding that suspected fake journalists would be handed over to relevant government and law enforcement authorities for appropriate action
