By Oghenekevwe Laba
LAGOS NOVEMBER 4TH (URHOBOTODAY)-The Centre For Media Law and Research has congratulated the members of the Nigerian Online Publishers Association (NOPA) for their initiative to regulate the working ethics of the profession.
CMLR, in a statement by its Executive Director, Gbolahan Gbadamosi, therefore promised to partner with the association in order to make its members more proficient in their tasks.
CMLR was reacting to the recent parley between the President, Nigerian Guild of Editors, Mr. Femi Adesina, and members of NOPA, where he challenged the online publishers in the country to ensure that they verify their stories before they are uploaded.

Gbadamosi, the pioneer Chairman, Lawyers In The Media of the Nigerian Bar Association, added in a statement: “CMLR will make available to the leadership of NOPA the proceedings of the 2011 LIM forum held in Port-Harcourt with the theme: ‘Internet Libel and the Law of Defamation’, treated expertly by the then US-based Online law expert, Kayode Oladele, now Chief of Staff to the Executive Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and Muyiwa Sobo, also a US-based lawyer on internet libel
“Besides, the outcome of the Media Session of the International Bar Association in Boston, USA recently is also available for NOPA members.”
Gbadamosi noted that CMLR will partner the online publishers on how to improve the capacity building of NOPA members so that the advice of Adesina on the need to set standards would not be in vain.
Meanwhile, more online publishers are joining NOPA on daily basis.
Those who were at the last meeting of the Association held in Lagos on October 25, 2013, said they were there to identify with NOPA’s desire to enthrone professionalism in online publishing.
They included the publishers of You News, New Mail, and Urhobo Today – Afolabi Odeyemi, Semiu Salami and Laba Oghenekevwe.
There have been several others who have sent in their goodwill messages and who have indicated interest in attending the next meeting of NOPA, scheduled to hold soon.
According to the Chairman of NOPA, Malachy Agbo, the association was set up principally to ethrone professionalism and journalism ethics in the online publishing business, adding that all hands must be on deck to professionalise the industry that every operator should be proud of.
The President of the NGE, Mr. Femi Adesina, has also enjoined the association to enthrone professionalism in order to checkmate those using their platforms to blackmail and propagate false news for pecuniary gains.
Adesina, who spoke with NOPA members at their last meeting in Lagos, urged the association not to lose focus of its aim of professionalising online publishing.