Gov Diri Advices Social Media Aides To Uphold Media Laws
The Evangelist News Edition Sunday July 9, 2023. By Arodiegwu Eziukwu
Gov Douye Diri of Bayelsa at the weekend urged his social media aides to operate within the ambits of the law to avoid legal consequences.
Diri spoke in Yenagoa during the unveiling of a new media campaign for promoting projects and programmes of the government and inauguration of ‘Prosperity 2.0’ media campaign.
Diri noted that any breach of media laws like spreading falsehood will attract legal sanctions to his administration.
“Try to be truthful, there are so much lies and prevalidations on the social media. And I don’t want you as government social media practitioners.
“Avoid cyber bullying, there are lots of bullies in the cyberspace so refrain from cyber bullying. A lot of hate in the cyberspace refrain from hate comments.
“You need to develop yourselves in critical thinking and check your facts over and over again. And be sure that what you are pushing out is the truth and nothing but the truth.
“With what we have done here today, I release you as social media practitioners to start the campaign for the people of Bayelsa state,” Diri said.
Speaking earlier, Dr Kola Oredipe, Director New Media to Diri in his remarks said that media remains the most powerful tool for social and political mobilisation.
He explained that social media is a vehicle to showcase projects, policies and programmes of the government.
“So far we have showcased the programmes and projects of the government. We have plans to intensify our publicity.
“The prosperity government is making impacts in every sector of the state and of course our projects are lined up in all the communities.
‘We shall be telling the people why the prosperous government needs a second tenure. We need to set agenda for continuity hence the media campaign called prosperity 2.0,” Oredipe said.
Diri also held an interactive session with their over 200 social media aides who were earlier trained by a Bayelsa born social media consultant Harry Pobeni.
