The Board of Editors of ThisDay Newspaper and Arise Television has reacted after the All Progressives Congress (APC), in separate publications and mediums called for the dismissal of its reporter, Rufai Oseni.
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In a statement credited to the APC Presidential Campaign Council spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, the party asked the broadcast station to sack the employee over his alleged attacks on it presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
However, the Board of Editors of ThisDay Newspaper and Arise Television in a statement published on Monday, December 12, slammed the ruling party for such a call. The broadcast stations said it had received two separate requests from top members of the APC campaign organisation to lay two news reporters off their positions.
iBrandtv understands that the party is asking for the dismissal of ThisDay Editor, Shaka Momodu and The Morning Show co-host on Arise News, Rufai Oseni.
The ruling party demanded that the duo be sacked to stop the attacks or get a reprieve from a future Tinubu presidency.
In a joint statement titled: “Tinubu and ThisDay/Arise Media Group and the Attack on Free Speech”, the media organisation said they would not give in to pressure from the ruling party, APC.
The statement said: “We also note that two senior APC campaign officials had separately requested that we move THISDAY Editor and columnist, Shaka Momodu, and The Morning Show co-host on ARISE News, Rufai Oseni, from their current positions to stop the attacks or get a reprieve from a future Tinubu presidency. “The Boards of Editors of This Day Newspapers and the Arise News Channel would like to state without equivocation that we do not fire journalists because of their views. “Facts are sacred and opinions free is the age-old dictum to which all free-thinking men subscribe.
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“We allow our editors the freedom to air their opinions unfettered and have created The Office of the Ombudsman to take any complaints and discipline any abuse of office by any of our staff members,” Arise TV’s statement reads in part.”
The media platforms noted that personal attacks on both reporters intensified since the publication in the ThisDay edition of 18th November, 2022 of the death of one Mueez Adegboyega Akande, a Tinubu associate mentioned by US authorities as being involved in a drug trafficking investigation of the APC candidate in 1993.
