"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is Public Relations"
George Orwell
For those following political events in OAU, the recent petition filed by the runner-up of the office of the Secretary General, Awotiwon Ibiyemi, in the last Students’ Union Elections would be old news. The petition followed the release of a document online by an unidentified source and it claimed that Hon Seun, the winner of the election, was not eligible to contest as he had not met the CGPA requirements involved. The news upon its first arrival on the Great Ife Students Union facebook Page went viral almost immediately featuring on popular news platforms on the Campus and is said to have even featured in the Punch newspaper of the 18th May 2015. However, threats were flying around in the political community most especially by the agents of Hon. Seun who claimed that the news was generated by pressmen and the first runner up, Ibiyemi.
Journalism is simply
defined as news gathering, editing and reporting and news is simply recent information
or previously unknown information. Journalism has gained a strong presence in
the society;most especially the democratic society and right from the Acta Diurna
of Ancient Rome to the New York Times and BBC to The Punch Newspaper and
Channels TV; the “Gentlemen of the Press” have always been a voice to listen to.
The likes of Dele Momodu, Dele Giwa and a lot of other great journalists have
shown the checkmating power that the press possess over the government even
at a period in Nigerian history when Autocracy was at its peak.
They say Words are
like eggs, Once dropped cannot be recovered. I would therefore like to appeal
to the entirety of the Great Ife Students to display the intellectuality that
is a trademark of our Union and not allow sentiments and nepotistic emotions
influence our actions and speech because who knows? They might be tomorrows
headline. I would also like to send a message to people who have threatened or
is planning to threaten any journalist whether he is from Punch or The Insider; You can’t threaten the News!
Pope Jay
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