Chairman of the Ebonyi State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Tony Nwizi, has declared that journalists deserved better working conditions and palliatives like health workers.
He argued that giving journalists better working conditions and palliatives would enable them to discharge their duties as purveyors of information during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He commended Governor David Nweze Umahi for the way he has secured the state from the coronavirus pandemic assuring him of the NUJ support in the fight against the scourge.
In a statement in Abakaliki Nwizi restated support of members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm in assisting the state government in the fight against coronavirus, insisting that journalists in the country needed better working conditions.
Meanwhile, a former member of the Imo State House of Assembly, Obulimba Innocent Ekeh, has given relief materials to journalists in different chapels of the state chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ).
Handing over cash and Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) including face masks, detergents and hand sanitisers in Owerri yesterday, Ekeh, who is now Chairman, Governing Council, Imo State Polytechnic, Umuagwo, said the gesture would help to cushion the effects of the lockdown on the journalists.
He charged governments at all levels to extend palliatives to media practitioners in the country, stressing that journalists were among professionals in the frontlines of the fight against coronavirus pandemic.