Why is it that everyone in the society expects the journalist to do a good job, risk his life to investigate issues and come up with facts, yet no one bothers about his welfare?
In issues of politics, crime, economy, etc, everyone expects the Journalist to be fair, honest, unbiased, accountable and unrelenting, yet no one bothers what happens below his diaphragm.
The military, the police, Civil Defense, Road Safety, elected and appointed officials etc whose jobs are to serve the nation are all paid heavily to discharge their functions without fear or favour.
They have quarters or barracks where they don’t pay rent(no matter how dilapidated it might be), they have special schools for their kids, they have special allowances, and when they die whether in active duty or not, they’re given State Burial and sometimes their families would be taken care of.
Yet, when it comes to Journalists, the reverse is the case. No one cares about what they earn, what they eat, where they live, where their children go to school or what happens when they die. Yet everyone expects accountability from them.
Everyone expects accountability from the Journalist. Oya buy Newspaper, you will not buy. Subscribe for News, you will not subscribe. Make donations for Investigative Journalism, you will not make. Yet you demand accountability from the same person more than you demand from your elected officials?
Isn’t the Journalist a sufferhead?
The average Radio Presenter you listen to earns about 50k to 80k per month in salary and every presenter works round the clock. It’s not about the one hour program but the 12 hours spent preparing for the 1 hour program, the time spent sourcing for guests, post program analysis and evaluation. On top of that, if he mistakenly plays a bad song or uses the wrong word on air, NBC will fine him 100k and above.
And in truth, over 60% of those you hear their voices on radio and TV do not have any employment letter. They don’t have official appointment. They depend on stipends given to them by their program guests to survive or if they’re able to hustle for adverts, then they can get about 5% of the advert money.
In Enugu, the highest paid radio presenter doesn’t earn more than 300k and that’s because he also serves in a managerial capacity and presents about 4 different programs aside his normal morning program.
The gentlemen working in Newspaper and Magazine organisations are worse. Nursery school teachers are sometimes better than them.
The ones on TV are not treated any better. That’s why you see them jumping from AIT to Channels to TVC to Arise and back. It’s favourable working conditions that they’re looking for like that. And then, their jobs are not even pensionable. Thank God for Twitter (X), some of them can now earn without infringing on the terms of their contracts.
You see, everyone holds the Journalist accountable. Everyone blames the media when things go wrong but no one cares about them and their welfare. They become the sacrificial lambs, the scapegoats.
Everyone perceived to be rendering selfless service to the nation is well taken care of, except the Journalist. Yet the people want the Journalists to kill himself for them. They want the Journalist to reject fat envelope filled with money just to calm down and not write anything.
When others are bribed, it is for them to do something huge, risky and dangerous. When Journalists are bribed, it is for them to save their strength and rest for a while.
Yet the people expect the Journalist to turn down that offer to rest with huge money and choose to risk his life for the sake of the person who thinks 50 naira subscription is too much to use and subscribe for his articles?
We must be fair in our Judgement. If we want true unbiased Journalism, then we must learn to pay for it. We must learn to fund the media and take care of Journalists independently.
If we leave the welfare of Journalists to politicians who obviously own the media stations and publishing houses, we should expect nothing less than absolute support for those politicians.
He who pays the piper, dictates the tune. Pay for information so it can serve the interest of the Masses.