Avoid amateurish publications, Awka Anglican urges online publishers

The Anglican Diocese of Awka has advised media practitioners to eschew all forms of unprofessional publications capable of tarnishing the image of Nigeria especially in this era of online journalism. Dr Emeka Odogwu, Director,  Media, Publicity and Communications for the Anglican Diocese of Awka,  Province of the Niger, gave the advice in a statement on behalf of the diocese on Friday. Odogwu, a Mass Communication lecturer at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (Unizik Awka), said the reach of online makes it imperative for media practitioners to ensure best professional practice at all times. The spokesman of the church addressed the media on a trending online publication which claimed that three students at Queens’ Convent Secondary School Awka were impregnated by their school gateman.  Odogwu, described the report as “malicious, denigrating, and pedestrian”, saying that the school had been on holidays since July ending. “Queens’ Convent students are on holidays and will resume next week and the intention of the online publishers is to smear the image of the school ahead of resumption,” he said. Odogwu, equally the incumbent Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Anambra Council, said it was the height of unprofessionalism not to balance such a scandalous report. He said the church in Nigeria has been adjudged one of the best managers of educational institutions, the reason why many state governments returned schools they initially took from the church. “The Principal of Queens’ Convent Awka is the wife of the Archbishop, Province of the Niger and Anglican Bishop of Awka, Mrs Martha Ibezim, who is a known disciplinarian. “It is common knowledge in Anambra that Queens’ Convent Awka students have distinguished themselves in local and international contexts and broken records in Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, West Africa School Certificate Examination and National Education Council,” he said. Odogwu said it was both unpatriotic and unprofessional for online media to be targeting traffic on their website at the expense of corporate image and identity of our society. “Targeting high percentage of visitors on your blog and  ignoring the simplest thing to do as a journalist is wrong because the entire society is at the receiving end of such unprofessional acts,” he said.