By NewsCritic Reporters
Special Adviser on Special Duties to Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, Erondu Erondu Jnr Has explained why he does not grant press interview despite being one of the governor prominent aides.
According to Erondu Jnr, the kind of job he does for the governor is such that he should only be seen and not to be heard. He said he was called by the governor to work for him as an aide not as a spokesperson, adding that there are people who have the responsibility to speak to the press.
Erondu Jnr spoke at the Michael Okpara Auditorium when he received an award from Abia State Online Media Practitioners, during its annual general meeting on Monday December 23, 2019.
He said that his refusal to speak to the press is not as a result of lack of what to say but because he believes that the governor did not hire him to do that aspect of job.
The Special Adviser, however, decried the activities of some online journalists whom he said derive pleasure in publishing stories that will tarnish the image of their fellow human being.
According to him, social media has succeeded in bringing the world together, and should be used in a positive way not to run down individuals and government appointees. He said that the media practitioners should properly define who is a journalist, saying that a situation whereby anybody with smart phone and data posts all manner of things on the social media and claim to be a journalist is unacceptable.
He said that the code of the profession demands that journalists should balance their reports and wondered why it is not so now, pointing out that great bloggers did not make it by blackmailing people. He also advised journalists against publishing fake news or giving detractors space to post hate materials against the government.
