Cross River: Information minister Idris lauds Otu for remodelling moribund Chronicle newspaper edifice

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Muhammed Idris Malagi has lauded Governor Bassey Otu of Cross River for the remodelling of the abandoned state-owned Chronicle newspaper edifices razed during the #EndSARS protest of 2020 and abandoned for six years.

Speaking in Calabar, Thursday, during the commissioning of the state-of-the-art edifice, which also houses the new government printing press, Alhaji Idris said: “Let me use this opportunity to thank Your Excellency, Prince Bassey Out, for giving this vital sector the attention it deserves.

“At a time that many newspapers are dying. At a time that people felt that there is no future for newspapers. You are indeed breathing life into this sector.

“Today is about much more than reopening a building or commissioning equipment, it is about restoring an institution, preserving institutional memory and renewing confidence in the newspaper and indeed the media profession itself.

“Let me say that the faster that information travels the greater the premium we must place on verification. Technology may change the tools of journalism but it cannot replace truth. It cannot replace accuracy. It cannot replace fairness and what others have said.

“I am equally pleased that this occasion includes the commissioning of a modern government printing press. Even in digital age, official documentation remains indispensable.

“Laws, gazettes, white papers, reports and public reports must be properly produced, secured and preserved and this is precisely one of the reasons why this is happening today.

“At the federal government level, the government press continues to perform a similar responsibility in producing and preserving documents that form part of our national institutional memory.”

In his remarks, Governor Otu said: “When I hosted the first media parley on assumption of office, I made it abundantly clear that my administration will engender free flow of information from the government to the citizenry and vice versa. To achieve this goal, every information asset will be revitalised and the channel strengthened to deliver on its mandate.”