President of the Senate, David Mark has charged Nigeria’s external broadcasting organisation, the Voice of Nigeria (VON) to review its modus operandi and work out a blueprint to salvage the negative image of the country abroad.
Mark told the board and management of VON who briefed him on the operational challenges facing the agency that the negative image of Nigeria abroad without a corresponding response was unacceptable.
“The way the Western media portrays Nigeria abroad without a corresponding counter or reaction to correct the misinformation is unfair. As the external broadcasting station for our country, you need to do more to correct the negative impression. There are still some good side s about us. Such areas are either under reported or unreported at all”, Mark stressed.
He said:” you will need to go the extra mile to do the needful. You should be professionally minded. Be objective and balance in your reportage in line with international best practices”.
Senator Mark also urged the management of VON to work towards improving the facilities of the organisation with the state-of-the-art equipment in order to be able to compete favorably with their counterparts abroad.
He stressed the need for training and retraining of personnel to meet the modern trend in the broadcasting industry.
Earlier, the Chairman, Board of Directors of VON, Chief Andy Aghaji canvassed for improved facilities and funding in order to meet the challenges of modern digital broadcasting.
Aghaji noted that VON is a foreign policy tool for the government of Nigeria and currently broadcast to the world in eight languages.
He said the agency is poised to move Nigeria to the next level but inadequate funding remains a challenge.
