The Ondo State government on Monday blacklisted three broadcast media station from covering government and governor’s activities in the state.
The three affected stations which included Channels Television, African Independent Television and CORE TV, were blacklisted from covering government assignments.
According to one of the reporters of the affected media, the State Commissioner for Information, Mr Yemi Olowolabi, gave the order to the three media outfits and their correspondent in the state.
He said, “the commissioner sent a message to us that our services are no longer needed at the governor’s office.”
The reporter disclosed to TribuneOnline that the quit notice was relayed to them by the Press Officer attached to the governor’s office.
He also stated that the development might not be unconnected with the fact that the affected stations had not been doing the bidding of the Commissioner by not picking stories favourable to the state government.
Corroborating the claim of his colleague, another affected correspondent maintained that Olowolabi had always been complaining about their news items and the negative reports from their various stations.
However, Olowolabi confirmed the development but said the three media outfits had been recalled.
He said the immediate past government was owing to them and the administration of Rotimi Akeredolu has been paying the money on installments basis while the organisation has been on the state government neck over the payment.
Olowolabi said, “They are called dedicated service and I started it when I was CPS some 14 years ago. I brought the AIT in, I brought the ITV and Channels. We pay them quarterly for news coverage.
“Now when we resumed, we found out that the previous government was owing them over 300 million.
“So before commissioners were appointed, the Ministry of information had signed an agreement with all of them that it wasn’t this government that owed them, but they negotiated 50 percent cut, meaning we will pay them 50 percent of the total sum, and they all agreed.
“We have been paying that debt since I resumed. But we have not renewed any of these contracts, and I also suggest that we should clear what we owe, rather than accruing another hundreds of millions of debt.
“So we had an understanding with them that we will pay what we owe, but you will continue to use our stories. To some of the stations, we have paid some N10m, others N20m, and we are paying them on an instalmental basis.
“We have paid twice, it remains just one tranche to clear the debt. Now, based on this understanding, TVC uses our story, Galaxy does, ITV does, but Channels has refused to air anything from Ondo State except if it is negative unless we pay all the debt. AIT has also refused to use any of our stories.
“So my understanding is that upon the fact that we give them allowances every month, we support them, we create a conducive environment for them to operate, yet they don’t use stories. In fact, they don’t even cover events. No private broadcast station covers any story from me, except if it is negative news.
“I just told them to go and find something else to do, rather than sit in governor’s office morning till night doing nothing. So nobody has expelled them. If we are expelling them, we will write to their stations formally.
“But for them to sit down doing nothing, I think it’s almost unfair to themselves, that’s my position.”
Reacting, a seasoned journalist, Mr Oye Adegbehingbe described the decision of the governor and his information commissioner as unacceptable and illegal.”