Mr Ademola Babalola, Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo State Council, has condemned Chief Femi Fani-Kayode for verbally assaulting Daily Trust correspondent in Calabar, Cross River.
Speaking on Thursday in Ibadan, the NUJ Chairman described the ex-minister as “an inconsequential man who is not meant to be taken too serious.”
Babalola said journalism was a divine profession whose aim and objective was to sanitise the society.
He said journalism was a risky profession and least loved by the political bigwigs and people of power because it exposes them.
“Journalists are most hated by the powerful people in the society, we are like day and night as we are both managing and tolerating ourselves.
“They know we are the only ones that can expose their wrong deeds to the people and this is the major reason for the hatred, occasional and unbridled attacks on journalists.
“Jounalism as a profession, lacks insurance cover, if any thing is wrong with any one of us, we are always on our own,” said Babalola.
He said: “Even at that, we are still not relenting in our responsibilities to hold those in government accountable and responsible to the masses in line with the dictates of the Section 22 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution as amended.
“Yet with the current state of our profession and how they treat us, we still maintain our standards as we are not going to compromise.
“The name of the profession has been tarnished, not by the members of the institution but by individuals who engage in what is known as citizen journalism
“It is professionally referred to as ‘arm chair journalism’ where an individual write anything from his or her comfort zone,” he said.
Babalola said when people stumble on a fake trending story, they have always been attaching such to Journalists.
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He therefore urged fellow journalists not to be discouraged by the challenges of the profession.