By Amaechi Agbo

President, Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, SWAN, Honour Sirawo has charged Best Choice Media, publisher of Bestchoicesport.com.ng to be fearless in their reportage of sports activities in the country.

Mr Sirawo who gave the advice in an exclusive interview with the editor of the fastest-rising-online-sports site in Africa, Amaechi Agbo, admonished the management to always have their facts and be professional in discharging their responsibility. 

Mr Sirawo who is seeking for reelection into the office condemned the unprofessional activities of some sports journalists who have turned themselves to be stooges in the hands of sports administrators adding that the association would not hesitate to fish out and deregister any member who fall short of the ethics and professionalism of the industry.

He further asserted that some sports administrators are on a mission to divide the association but vowed that he would resist them.

“I follow your reports and as I always do, I encourage journalists we go a long way to make their impacts felt in the profession. I encourage you to continue what you are doing. You should be fearless. Your being fearless must be based on the quality and the veracity of the information being disseminated. Your report must be on facts – verifiable facts. And once your facts are secured, don’t be afraid of anybody. We will defend any journalist who is intimidated for disseminating factual information.

“If your information is verifiable and anybody comes after you, just do a little letter to SWAN and say ‘Look, they are coming after me based on ABCD’ and we will defend you. We will defend you to whatever level. I will stand with you, the association will stand by you as long as you have your facts and the story is verifiable. You don’t need to be afraid of anybody.

“The administrators are eager to divide us because of their ineptitude and if we allow them to divide us, they will use those that are actually not professionals but we will not tolerate that. We will not allow them to succeed. We must stand our ground. I have been telling fellow colleagues that no journalist who knows his personality and capacity in this profession should descend so low as to be somebody’s puppet.  When you make yourself a stooge to these administrators, you are destroying your profession, you are killing your career.  If you do the right and be objective and professional in your report, they will respect you,” he said.