The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ekiti State Council, has declared a sustained war against quack journalists and individuals impersonating professional journalists in the state.
The council said the ongoing anti-quackery campaign was aimed at sanitising the media industry, protecting the integrity of journalism and preventing members of the public from falling victim to individuals who use the identity and insignia of the union to perpetrate crimes.
The state NUJ Chairman, Comrade Kayode Babatuyi, stated this in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday during an anti-quackery exercise in Ekiti, saying the union had identified a growing trend in which individuals with smartphones and access to social media platforms present themselves as journalists without the requisite professional credentials.
Babatuyi said the exercise was also designed to draw a clear distinction between professional journalists and content creators, stressing that owning an Android phone or operating a social media platform did not automatically make anyone a journalist.
Also speaking, Chairman of the Anti-Quackery Committee of the Ekiti NUJ Council, Abiodun Olofe, said the campaign was directed at two major groups: members of the public and individuals operating as fake journalists.
Olofe urged the public to be cautious when dealing with people who claim to be journalists, warning that quacks were capable of spreading misinformation and damaging the credibility of genuine media practitioners.
He said the public should deal only with journalists who could be properly identified and certified, adding that the NUJ had introduced official identification stickers as part of efforts to distinguish legitimate practitioners from impostors.
