Declining ethical standards among journalists and the rise of unregulated online reporting are threatening the credibility of the media profession in Nigeria, prompting renewed calls for stricter adherence to journalistic ethics ahead of the 34th Nigeria Media Merit Award (NMMA).
The issues were raised at a press conference held by the Board of Trustees of NMMA in Lagos, yesterday, ahead of the formal presentation of 2026 entries.
Chairman of the NMMA Board of Trustees, Dayo Duyile, said the essence of the award, established in 1990, was to encourage journalists to remain professional and ethical in the practice of their trade.
“A journalist that practices his or her profession unethically is a dangerous journalist to the nation and to himself,” he said.
He cited figures showing that 1,112 entries were received for the 2026 edition across print, television and radio, out of which 972 were found qualified for evaluation after being checked against submission rules.
According to Duyile, unethical or manipulated reporting carries the risk of misleading the public and causing avoidable panic. He urged journalists covering the weekend’s Osun State gubernatorial election to report events as they occur rather than editorialise within straight news reports. “News is sacred. Comments free,” he said,
He added that journalists have the opportunity to express opinion separately through features and interviews.
He said online journalism remained largely excluded from the NMMA’s evaluation because most operators in the space lack formal training and are not bound by the ethical codes observed by traditional media houses, though he said the award would continue to adapt to technological change.
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Chairman of the evaluation and award panel, Dele Adetiba, said entries were assessed by about 27 assessors working independently across groups for print, radio and television, with group aggregation used afterwards to neutralise individual bias in scoring.
He said this year marked the first time all entries were submitted electronically, a shift from previous editions where physical copies with poor print or photo quality had sometimes made evaluation difficult.
Adetiba said the assessment process typically runs between six and eight weeks, after which findings are presented to the Board of Trustees for final sign-off before winners are announced at the grand awards ceremony.
Responding to why runners-up in each category are not given consolation prizes, Adetiba explained that NMMA, like most competitions, was designed to reward only outright winners, in line with rules communicated to entrants before submissions open.
Also speaking at the event, Samuel Akeju, the Chief Administrator and Co-founder of NMMA, said the awards had drawn on the experience of the British Press Awards and worked with the publisher of the UK Press Gazette in its formative years.
He said the Board of Trustees had received strong backing from the government of the day, recalling that former Imo State Governor, Sam Mbakwe personally attended one of the earliest award ceremonies shortly after the seat of government moved from Lagos to Abuja.
He said NMMA’s standing had since been recognised beyond Nigeria, citing the involvement of past NMMA figures in the launch of the CNN African Journalist Awards.
“The organisation had in the past extended privileges such as certificates and scholarships to runners-up but stopped the practice after some past runners-up went on to publicly claim status as winners.
