One of the greatest threats to credible journalism in Nigeria today is not censorship from government but the erosion of ethics from within the profession itself.
This is the rise of what can best be described as jeunjeun journalism — shallow, sensational, and transactional.
In recent times, the pattern adopted by platforms such as Lagos Reporters has become a source of concern to media professionals.
Stories are no longer built on investigation, verification, and balance.
Instead, we see headlines crafted to embarrass, half-truths elevated as facts, and deliberate omission of context in a manner that targets political office holders.
This model is dangerous for two reasons.
First, it undermines genuine accountability journalism.
When legitimate questions should be asked about road infrastructure, health sector decay, the strangulation of local governments, or the management of public funds, such important issues are drowned in the noise of personal attacks and sponsored blackmail.
Second, it reduces journalism to a tool of negotiation.
The sequence is now familiar: publish a damaging, unverified story; wait for panic calls; then negotiate a retraction behind closed doors.
If the price is paid, the story disappears.
If not, a follow-up attack is published.
That is not the public interest. That is extortion masquerading as press freedom.
Perhaps the most laughable part of this jeunjeun journalism is their penchant for grading.
Local governments are graded numerically without any clear measurement and evaluation framework.
What are the indices? What are the parameters? Where is the fieldwork? None.
Yet, with these questionable figures, many local government chairmen have gone to Abuja to receive undeserved awards as the Best Local Government Chairmen.
Awards without performance. Honours without justification.
The same flawed method is applied to legislators.
They come up with figures to list and rank lawmakers based on assumptions rather than professional verification of performance.
No bill tracking, no oversight assessment, no constituency project verification, no impact analysis.
What then are the yardsticks used to determine these positions?
Who monitors the monitors? What methodology can justify these rankings as credible?
Professional journalism demands more.
It demands evidence. It demands that all sides be heard.
It demands that facts be separated from opinion and that public interest overrides private gain.
If you must rate a local government, show us the schools you visited, the health centres you inspected, the roads you measured, the books you audited.
Political office holders are not above scrutiny.
They must be questioned, and where they fail, they must be held accountable.
But accountability must be rooted in facts, not fabrications.
Criticism must be constructive, not commercial. Awards must be earned, not purchased.
If Lagos Reporters intends to be taken seriously as a media platform, it must return to the basic tenets of the profession: truth, accuracy, fairness, and integrity.
The public is now more media-literate, more sophisticated, and more capable of distinguishing between investigative journalism and a paid hatchet job.
The media must remain the conscience of society, not its blackmailer.
