IF freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led,
like sheep to the slaughter, stated George Washington, first President of
United States of America, a great philosopher who lived 22nd February
1732-14th December 1799.
Having taken a critical look at the various dehumanizing conditions,
abuse, torture of Commonwealth citizens in several detention centers
especially in the Queen’s enclave and various violations of Rule of Law
principles by United Kingdom Border Agency, UKBA in contrast to the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR Treaty 1948, African Charter
on Human & Peoples’ Rights Law, even while those detainees’ appeal are
still pending before some courts of competent jurisdiction; a group of
journalists drawn from 54 members of the Commonwealth nations have come
together for posterity sake to re-write history by ensuring voice is given
to the voiceless, hope is made available to the hopeless, vision is handed
out to the visionless and life is accorded the traumatized, so that
justice will be seen at the end of the day to have been done by the use of
the pen.
Precisely on 15th December 2015, these multiple-award wining Editors from
various media outfits in Africa, Europe and United States of America
expressed their rights to form a registered association in Britain called
‘Union of Journalist Patriot’ http://www.
relying on Article 10 of African Charter on Human & Peoples’ Rights which
states that: Every Individual shall have the right to free association
provided that he abides by the law. Subject to the obligation of
solidarity provided for in Article 29, no one may be compelled to join an
association.
Union of Journalist Patriot website has been ALIVE 100% since 15 December
2015 in UK, across the world, and the traffic to the news pages has been
very inspiring going by the standards set by these highly revered media
practitioners that cuts across Newspapers, Digital Media (Online), News
magazines (Hard news); Soft-sell (News journal) and Broadcast Media.
In a Press Statement signed by Union of Journalist Patriot’s directorate,
these acclaimed journalists whose identities are known only to every
members of this association due to the importance, timely-investigation
and sensitivity in undercover reportage are drawn from the following media
houses : News Express (Nigeria’s fast-growing online daily newspaper), YES
International Magazine (Nigeria), Safari News UK, News Diary Online,
ThisDay Newspapers (Nigeria), Africa Independent Television (AIT Nigeria),
News Africa Now (South Africa); Herald Newspapers (Nigeria), National
Enquirer Magazine(Nigeria) and Leadership Newspapers (Nigeria).
Others are: The ICON Magazine (Nigeria), PUNCH Newspapers (Nigeria), CKN
News (Nigeria), New Telegraph Newspapers, The Nation Newspaper, African
Examiner (USA), News of the People Magazine (Nigeria), Sahara Weekly
Magazine (Nigeria), Global Excellence Magazine (Nigeria), Swift Reporters
(Nigeria), Daily Times of Nigeria, TELL Magazine (Nigeria), NATIONAL
Waves Magazine/Newspaper (Nigeria), Naija Standard Newspaper (Nigeria) and
Asaba-Africa blogspot (Nigeria).
The Statement reads: The unveiling of Union of Journalist Patriot is
determined to serve as a check and gate-keeper on news dissemination
regarding how Commonwealth citizens’ rights are respected or flouted in
foreign countries, mostly in Britain and well-detailed expose to be
written on any form of maladministration traceable to corruption and human
rights abuses by leaders of those Commonwealth nations.