Nigerian Online Publishers have formed an association with the aim of controlling and sanitising news dissemination through internet.
The publishers, who registered under the name of Nigerian Online Publishers Association (NOPA) with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), held their inaugural meeting on Tuesday in Lagos.
The meeting was attended by online publishers from various parts of the country.
They included Malachy Agbo, formerly of THISDAY, who is now the publisher of The Citizen; Musikilu Mojeed, Co-Publisher of Premium Times and former Investigative Editor of NEXT; Gabriel Akinadewo, Publisher of Freedom Online and former Editor of Nigerian Compass; Maureen Chigbo, Publisher, Realnews magazine and former General Editor of Newswatch; Isaac Umunna, Publisher, News Express and former General Editor, Africa Today; Justus Nwakanma, Publisher, Daily Review Online and the immediate past Editor of Daily Champion; Segun Adeleye, Publisher of WorldStage News Online and former Business Editor, The Nation and the Nigerian Compass; Femi Kehinde, Co-Publisher, African Examiner and ex-Editor at Green News; Chijama Ogbu, Publisher of The Rainbow and ex-Business Editor, The Punch; and Dotun Oladipo, Publisher of The Eagle Online, a former Sunday Editor of the Nigerian Compass.
At the meeting, Malachy Agbo was elected the National Chairman of NOPA and Musikilu Mojeed as the National Vice Chairman.
Other officers elected at the meeting included Dotun Oladipo as the National Secretary and Maureen Chigbo as the National Financial Secretary.
The chairman said that the association is being formed from the point of view of the growing need to ensure that online publishers uphold the tenets of journalism in doing their jobs.
Agbo said that there is the need to sanitize online publishing in Nigeria, with the realization that as the future of journalism in the country it should be used to develop the countries of the world.
Goodwill messages were sent to the meeting from Abuja by publishers of Promptnews online, Akeem Oyebanji, Frontiernews, Dan Idonor and Horatius Eguah, Greenbarge Reporters, Yusuf Ozi-Usman and others.