who we are
The Nigerian Press Council
Established
Nigerian Press Council is an agency under the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation. It was established by the Nigerian Press Council Act CAP N128 to promote high professional standards for the Nigerian Press. It was inaugurated on December 29, 1992.
Ethical Press
Its vision is to create a culture of Ethical Press in Nigeria driven by research and documentation of contemporary press development, training and workshops for journalists, accreditation of journalism/mass communication programmes in tertiary institutions, investigation of complaints about the press, and monitoring of the press's activities.
Professionalism
The Council serves as a buffer between the media, government and the public by ensuring the maintenance of the highest ethical and professional standards in the media. It is mutually beneficial to the public as well as the journalists themselves. The Council is not a law court, it considers complaints against news media and journalists, concerning the messages they publish besides their behaviour with regard to the people they encounter in covering the news. The Complaints that people make about news publications and broadcasts usually pertain to ethical standards such as truth, accuracy, fairness, balance and decency, or issues such as bias, objectivity, sensationalism fake news and blackmail
Goals and Objectives
The Nigerian Press Council has the following goals and objectives: to promote professionalism and encourage the highest standards in journalism; safeguard Freedom of the Press; protect the Rights and Privileges of Journalists; protect the public from journalists' excesses through adjudication; and render the cheapest and fastest complaints resolution mechanism between the media and the public, among other things.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
The desirability of Press Councils is not in dispute as not only do they serve as a people-oriented democratic, efficient and inexpensive forum for hearing complaints, but they also serve as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism that helps reduce the barrage of litigations that otherwise would clog the courts.