Otu reactivates Nigerian Chronicle

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has urged political actors and the media to resist misinformation and hate speech and place national unity above partisan interests.

He called on journalists to “be fast, but accurate” and for governments at all levels to invest in training and retraining of media professionals.

The minister made the call yesterday in Calabar during the official reactivation of the remodelled Cross River State Newspaper Corporation and the commissioning of a new state-of-the-art Government Printing Press.

Delivering the keynote address, Idris commended Governor Bassey Otu for repositioning the 56-year-old institution rather than allowing it to “disappear into history”.

He said the transformation of the Corporation into the Cross River Information Hub and the new press was about “restoring an institution, preserving institutional memory and renewing confidence in credible information and professional journalism.”

“In today’s fast-paced digital and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven media space, credibility has become more important than speed,” Idris said.

He charged the new Hub to become a centre for credible journalism, digital innovation and public engagement that will “tell the Cross River story confidently to Nigeria and the world.”

The minister also stressed that “a government that does not preserve its records risks losing its history.”

Defending the Federal Government’s reforms under President Bola Tinubu on the removal of petrol subsidy, he said: “The answer to the hardship associated with reform is not to dismantle reform; it is to accelerate its benefits.”

In his remark, Cross River State Governor, Bassey Otu, said the reactivation was in fulfilment of his pledge to “engender free flow of information” and strengthen every state’s information asset.

He noted that his administration had earlier upgraded CRBC’s transmission equipment and office blocks.