Online publishers have
made very grave assertions, and threaten drastic action in attempt to seek
redress.
Here are the details
The online publishers who
met in Lagos State on Saturday to review the activities of political parties in
relation to advert patronage rose to a conclusion that campaign organisations
of the political parties have deliberately diverted advertising funds meant for
online news platforms in the country
Professional journalists who have taken to online publishing in Nigeria have resolved to boycott the activities of political parties in Nigeria with immediate effect.
Professional journalists who have taken to online publishing in Nigeria have resolved to boycott the activities of political parties in Nigeria with immediate effect.
The online publishers who
met in Lagos State on Saturday to review the activities of political parties in
relation to advert patronage rose to a conclusion that campaign organisations
of the political parties have deliberately diverted advertising funds meant for
online news platforms in the country.
This was a situation they
roundly condemned and called on all news publishing online platforms in the
country to shun all party related activities until the abnormally is addressed.
The publishers expressed
disgust at the gimmick of the campaign organisations to use the advertisement
streaming platforms of Google and other third party advertisement streaming
organisations, which pay little or nothing for it, instead of dealing directly
with the Nigerian publishers who are creating jobs for millions of Nigerians in
the online industry.
In that regard, the
publishers ordered the immediate stoppage of online political advertisements
with foreign inputs with immediate effect.
The publishers gathered
that one of the two major political parties in the country had budgeted not
less than N150 million for online advertisement campaign.
However, till date, no credible online news website has indicated it had benefitted from the N150 million advertisement campaign fund.
The Deputy Director
General of one of the campaign organisations told an online publisher at the
Presidential Villa in Abuja that approval had been given and money released for
the party’s advertisement campaign on credible news websites but expressed
surprise that the money had been diverted.
This is apart from the
millions of naira budgeted for media relations.
Aside from streaming
political advertisements through third parties on the news websites, thus
creating the impression that advertisements had been given, what some of those
involved in the campaigns themselves had done was to quickly open phoney news
websites and diverted the funds for the advertisement campaign into private
pockets.
It was in the light of
these revelations that the online publishers decided to, with immediate effect,
boycott the activities of the political parties, some of which “dump” press
statements on the online news websites as early as 6am and send as many as 10
of such releases in a day.
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