By Folorunso Ojo
Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has blacklisted three broadcast media stations from accessing and covering of the governor’s office and other ondo state government’s activities.
The affected broadcast medium are Channels TV, AIT and Core TV.
It was reliably gathered that the state’s Commissioner for Information, Yemi Olowolabi ordered the bar of the media organizations and correspondents/cameramen.
According to one of the affected correspondents, “the commissioner sent a message to us that our services are no longer needed at the governor’s office”.
The affected correspondents who preferred anonymity disclosed that the governor’s quit notice was relayed to them by the Press Officer attached to the Governor’s Office, Bode Akinwumi through the Information Commissioner.
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 picking stories favourable to the state government.
Corroborating the claim of his colleague, another affected correspondent maintained that Olowolabi had always been unhappy with them for not reeling out news that would please the state government.
Reacting, a seasoned journalist, Mr Oye Adegbehingbe described the decision of the governor and his information commissioner as unacceptable and illegal.
Adegbehingbe said the action of Akeredolu was a direct attack on freedom of information act which allows individuals and the media to have unhindered access to government’s activities and transaction.
