SEE KETTLE CALLING POT BLACK

"It is an ignominy that THE PUNCH newspaper, a publication renowned for the best practices in the Industry and respected by the public as a bearer of truth has found itself in the troubled waters of unethical practices involving the ED publications who is celebrated for wielding a battle axe on corrupt public officers and even private individuals, with his editorial column"

Ethics is acting in accordance with right principles as defined by a given system or professional conduct. The importance of a code of ethics for any profession cannot be overemphasised. This is more so because practitioners strive to enhance generally accepted standards in their practice in other to weed out charlatans from their midst and enhance trust and credibility in such profession. The Mass Communication practice is not immune to this assertion.

As a PGD student at The Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba Lagos, part of our curriculum and requirement is a study of ethical practices in the media. We carried out an analysis of various ethical factors and problems in mass communication and my group was assigned to look at the issue as it relates to employee/employer relationship.

During our study, we discovered the following;

1. Although an overall code of ethical code exist which was issued by the Nigerian Press Organization in 1978 and signed jointly by the President of the NPAN, the President of the NGE and the President of the NUJ, It has not been fully accepted and practiced by all journalists, editors and producers. Only a few media outlets have “house” codes however many of them fail to create a favourable climate to practice them

2. The Nigerian media still lacks a set of overall professional standards, which would be equally honoured and observed by journalists and managers of media houses

3. The lack of a uniform, enforceable ethical code

4. The gate keeping habit practiced in some media houses where certain individuals within the organisation (Editors, Reporters and Publishers etc) decided to “Kill” a story thereby preventing such story from getting to the public.

5. What is called “The Brown envelope syndrome” among some practicing journalists in Nigeria.

These amongst others have been the bane of the media industry in Nigeria. Also we gathered from the code of ethics for Nigerian Journalist as ratified by The Nigerian Press Council (NPC) and The Nigerian Press Organization (NPO) at Ilorin in 1998, which has become a reference point for Nigerian Journalist and the informed public concerning issues of self regulation in the practice of the media profession; that the media employee/ employer are ethically responsible to each other in the areas of; loyalty- a media practitioner must be loyal to his/her organization. This means he or she must not have double allegiance; honesty- a media practitioner must be honest in dealing with the public and employer; gratification- media practitioner must not accept gratification either from the public or from the employer to distort fact . This in Nigeria is referred to as “The brown envelope syndrome” and must be avoided at all cost in order to create and maintain credibility.

The success of the media depends on a high degree of public trust. To earn and maintain this trust, it is morally binding on every media practitioner to observe the highest professional/moral and ethical standards.

It is an ignominy that THE PUNCH newspaper, a publication renowned for the best practices in the Industry and respected by the public as a bearer of truth has found itself in the troubled waters of unethical practices involving the ED publications who is celebrated for wielding a battle axe on corrupt public officers and even private individuals, with his editorial column. It has become a case of kettle calling pot black.

A synopsis of events that led to the eye-opening and embarrassing disclosure goes thus- The editor of The Punch Newspaper was sacked unjustly for planning to plant a story about some Lagos state public officers in the same paper that he edits. The story was not published in The Punch Newspaper on Wednesday February 17 2010; however the story appeared in every other newspaper with full pictures on the same day. The Editor felt he had been treated unjustly and this led to his writing a letter dated March 1, 2010 to the board of Directors demanding justice and opening a can of worms that revealed the true identity of their respected and presumed morally upright and ethical sound ED Publications.

The editor’s letter revealed the many atrocities of the ED Publications of Punch Newspaper right from when he was the editor of the paper. The sacked editor gave facts and mentioned names of members of staff past and present who could be contacted should the Board of Directors choose to investigate his allegations. In the letter, the Ed Publications was accused of disloyalty to The Punch Newspaper, using the newspapers resources for his selfish interest, the brown envelope syndrome that has stigmatized the industry for so long, gate-keeping stories about highly placed individuals who he incidentally was on their payroll among many other unethical practices. This was someone whose editorial was sought after by so many Nigerians who believed they were getting an objective and critical view of happenings in Nigeria. It turned out that the mouth piece of the public to corrupt leaders in private and public sector was indeed corrupt himself. What a shame!

Personally I am disappointed and I imagine what huge responsibility God Almighty will have on his shoulder on judgment day. This is a lesson to other corrupt media practitioners and public in general that there is nothing covered under the sun. What you do in secret will one day be brought to the open, so please do what you will be proud of even when no one is watching you.

COLLAPSE IN THE NIGERIAN CAPITAL AND MONEY MARKETS: THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA

“Perhaps, if the investors were better informed on the enormity of risks that were associated with their level of activities in these companies in the capital market, the level of their investment decision would have been different”

I. INTRODUCTION

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with over 150 million people, the eighth most populous country in the world, and the most populous country in the world in which the majority of the population is 'black'. This implies that the Nigerian media will probably be the largest in Africa. With 140 local Television Stations, 6 Satellite TV providers, 98 Daily Newspaper, 45 Magazines, 40 Weekly Magazines and 124 radio Stations this statistic is debatable. The economy of Nigeria is one of the fastest growing in the world, with the International Monetary Fund projecting a growth of 9% in 2008 and 8.3% in 2009.

Nigeria is listed among the "Next Eleven" economies. The Next Eleven (or N-11) are eleven countries—Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Turkey, and Vietnam—identified by Goldman Sachs investment bank as having a high potential of becoming the world's largest economies in the 21st century along with the BRICs. The bank chose these states, all with promising outlooks for investment and future growth, on December 12, 2005. Goldman Sachs used macroeconomic stability, political maturity, openness of trade and investment policies, and the quality of education as criteria. The N-11 paper is a follow-up to the bank's 2003 paper on the four emerging "BRIC" economies, Brazil, Russia, India, and China.

This however was in 2005 when the Nigerian capital market experienced a boom. If Goldman Sachs carried out another study in 2010 their findings and report may be different. The Goldman Sachs investment banks disclosure was just after the banking industry consolidation in which the then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Professor Charles Chukuwma Soludo, set a bench mark of N 25 billion as bank capital base. Some banks in Nigeria went public and sold shares to investors. The future of the Nigerian economy, capital and money market looked bright. In the later part of 2008, the world witnessed a depression in the financial sector and this trickled down to Nigeria causing a backward trend in the money and capital market and leading to loss of investors’ funds and confidence in the Nigerian capital. As if this was not enough, an audit carried out by the new Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, last year revealed that some of the banks held in high esteem by the Nigerian public based on reports in the media and also the excellent results reported in their financial statements were actually distressed. In all this the citizens of Nigeria have been on the receiving end. What is the role of the media in crisis that has rocked the capital and money market in Nigeria in recent times?

First let us define some key terms so that we all can be on the same page.

II. DEFINITION OF TERMS

MEDIA: According to the Microsoft Encarta Dictionary, Media is the various means of mass communication considered as a whole, including television, radio, magazines, and newspapers, together with the people involved in their production

CAPITAL MARKET: According to Wikipedia Encyclopedia, capital market is a market for securities (debt or equity), where business enterprises (companies) and governments can raise long-term funds. It is defined as a market in which money is provided for periods longer than a year, as the raising of short-term funds takes place on other markets (e.g., the money market). The capital market includes the stock market (equity securities) and the bond market (debt).

MONEY MARKET: The money market according to Wikipedia Encyclopedia is a component of the financial markets for assets involved in short-term borrowing and lending with original maturities of one year or shorter time frames. Trading in the money markets involves treasury bills, commercial paper, bankers' acceptances, certificates of deposit, federal funds, and short-lived mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities. It provides liquidity funding for the global financial system.

MARGIN LOANS: A margin loan is money lent by a brokerage house/ financial institution to a client that allows the customer to buy stocks on credit.

III. THE MEDIA AND ITS ROLE

The Media is responsible to the Government and public of the nation in which it operates. However the Medias’ loyalty should be to the public where they operate. The media is expected to use facts to describe events, ideas, or issues that are relevant to the public and Government of the country. Its primary role includes among others, information dissemination, educating and entertaining the public. It is also a catalyst for agenda setting and opinion polling. In reporting technical issues like money& capital market activities, the report must be well written enough to appeal to the specialist and sufficiently simple and relevant not to bore the average news consumer but to sustain his interest and attention and inform him/her accurately so that he/she can make informed decisions.

A close examination of activities of the Media as regards the subject at hand reveals that the media has failed in its function of educating and informing the public and the Nigerian economy in general. The media failed in informing the public of the dubious activities of the executives in banks and other companies on the Nigerian Stock Market. The money and capital market is driven by the forces of demand and supply and like any other market it can be manipulated. This was what happened in the Nigerian capital and money market. The media were either ignorant, reporting only what they were been fed by these executives or they did not carry out their own investigation using measurable accounting/economic indices to determine the true financial state of these organizations and report facts to the public.

The crash in the capital Market can be directly linked to the margin loans which individuals received to finance purchase of shares in companies whose books were obviously been manipulated to suit major stakeholders in the companies. Over time, the market forces took charge and the prices of stocks began to drop. This put the investors in a mess and they began to count their losses.

In a recent publication the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido commenting on the crisis in the money and capital market links the crash to financial illiteracy. In his word he said,

“High level financial illiteracy on the part of the Nigerian investors basically contributed to the crash witnessed in the capital market”

Sanusi said the investors obviously lacked knowledge of the workings of the market and they were unaware of the high risks involved while accessing huge margin loans during the market’s boom period. He further said,


“Perhaps, if the investors were better informed on the enormity of risks that were associated with their level of activities in these companies in the capital market, the level of their investment decision would have been different”

The media only reported what they got from the corporate affairs department of the various organizations which eventually turned out to be false and also on the daily activities in the stock market. This is what investors based their decisions on, got involved in margin loan acquisition and this eventually led to the crash in the capital market and also the eventual discovery of the activities of the executives in the money market who are presently facing the wrath of the Economic and Financial Crime Commissions (EFCC).

Some specialized financial publication also involved in the practice of advising the public on which stocks to buy there by setting the agenda for the public. My personal investigation revealed that some of these media houses are owned by directors in some of these organizations and they used the media as a tool of enriching themselves by wrongly informing the public to buy a particular stock. The price of the stock will naturally increase as demand for the stock increases they will then sell at the high price to the numerous ignorant investors and the price will then begin to drop as supply will now be more than demand.

IV. CONCLUSION

The capital and money market reports are scientific reports that ought to be reported with precision. Precision journalism is the use of social and behavioral science → Research Methods to gather and analyze data, bringing a level of rigor to journalistic work beyond anecdotal evidence. This is what is expected of the media. They need to develop themselves well in knowledge of money and capital markets so that they can in-turn inform and educate the public accurately.

V. REFERENCES

1. Wikipedia Encyclopedia
2. Microsoft Encarta Dictionary 2009
3. Businessday Newspaper