The Union of Campus Journalists has been in existence since 1987. Astudent-controlled organisation fully registered by the Students’ Affairs Division U.I. It is the chief media entity and umbrella body of press organizations registered with of union in the University of Ibadan and the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan. Affiliated to it are independent press clubs, with membership strength of over 3000 students.
The union is committed to improving the standards of campus journalism with a view to ensuring its parity with mainstream journalism.
The Union of Campus Journalists is fashioned after the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) which is the professional body of “penpushers”. Just like NUJ, UCJ caters for the interest of Campus Journalists and promotes other intellectual activities on campus. The union is committed to entrenching intellectualism as a core idea of student. She strives to achieve this through her various activities which ranges from weekly publications on press boards, annual and seasonal publication of magazines and tabloids, seminars, interview for aspiring student politician and other activities as are deemed fit from time to time.
As an organisation committed to moulding young people as leaders of the future, the union has produced renowned individuals in various challenging capacities of human endeavours in Nigeria and outside its shores through the annual induction exercise successfully with the issuance of certificates of induction and identification cards. Strictly speaking however, no single individual can be inducted into the union, individuals can only be inducted through a local press organisation registered by the UCJ. It is for convenience (hat inducted individuals are referred to as members.
Structure of the union
The Union of Campus Journalists shall carry out her activities through fourmajor organs which are:
The secretariat
The senate
Editorial
THE SECRETARIAT
This is otherwise known as the Executive Council who are involved in theday to day running of the Union. It is made up of eight members:
President
Vice President (Administration)
Vice President (Editorial) who doubles up as the Editor-in-chief
General Secretary
Assistant General Secretary
Public Relations Officer
Treasurer
Financial Secretary
Members of the Executive Council are constituted by an annual electoral process.
2) THE SENATE
The senate is composed of the Executive council, all Editors-in-Chief and three other editors press organisation. The Senate is the decision-making body of the Union and is empowered to debate proposals of the secretariat and approve or disapprove by .majority vote. The Senate also guides the management, functions and activities of the Union.
3) THE EDITORIALARM
The Editorial arm of the organisation comprises of an Editorial Board of selected campus journalists and all Editors-in-Chief of member press organisations on campus who form the Guild of Editors.
- Editorial board
- GUILD OF EDITORS
This consists of all Editors-in-Chief of member press organisations and it is headed by the Vice President (Editorial). The major function of the Guild of Editors is to monitor the publications of associated press oreanisations the duly shall to maintaining a high standard in line with the ethics of journalism. This organ is also constitutionally delegated to handle all publications of the Union.
5)THEGENERALCONGRESS
This is the highest decision-making body of the Union and it consists of all members of the Union. Any issue that could not be resolved at the Senate is forwarded to the Congress for resolution. It can be summoned either by the President, the Executive Council or the Senate. If the Congress is not summoned by any of the above, it can meet at the request of fifty percent (50%) of registered member press organizations or at the instance of one person from at least 76% registered press organizations.
PROGRAMMES
Statutory Programmes
The statutory programme of the union include an Annual Induction programme a capacity building programme and an annual dinner and awards ceremony.
The Induction is the programme through which the Union admits new members. The Dinner and Awards Ceremony is the occasion at which the current set of Executives pass the baton to a new set of Executives. The capacity building shall an avenue to develop member to develop journalistic process
Other programmes may be organised from time to time according to the decisions of the Executive Council and the Senate.
INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITY
This is a programme through which the Union sends her members to mainstream media houses primarily for hands-on experiences in journalistic practices.
The interns spend a period of time working as pressmen in these media houses and this is usually during the long break after each session. The internship programmes is one of the efforts of the Union in her attempt towards achieving parity with the mainstream media.
PUBLICATIONS
The Union publishes an annual magazine called the Campulse and TheHeartbeat Tabloid. This is an addition to the weekly publications on theUnion’s press board and pressreleases on various issues from time to time.
GUIDING DOCUMENTS
The Union is guided by two major documents:
The Constitution of the Union of Campus Journalists
The Ethical Code of Conduct for Journalistic Practices.
The Constitution is the document that guides all the operations of the union. It is supreme and its provisions have binding effects on all members of the Union.
The Ethical Code of Conduct spells out criteria to be used for press publications. Pressmen are expected to make frequent consultations to this book/document. This is an effort to prevent unethical publications, defamatory articles and baseless/unsubstantiated claims.
JOURNALISM: OUR BELIEF IN UCJ
We believe that the public is entitled to the truth and that only correct information can form the basis for sound journalism and ensure the confidence of the people.
We believe therefore, that it is the duty of every journalist to have total and unreserved respect for the truth and to publish only the truth to the best of his knowledge.
Journalists should employ all legal and legitimate means in the collection of news and they shall defend at all times the right to free access. Our members are discouraged against using unfair methods to obtain information, news, photographs or documents.
It should also be noted that once information has been collected and also published, the journalist must, as a compulsory principle, observe the universally accepted principle of secrecy and shall not disclose the source of information obtained in confidence. This is for security reasons. We must as journalists, know that slander and calumny, unfounded accusations, plagiarism and blackmail are grave offences and are unethical.
Journalists shall do everything in their power to ensure the correction of any information to which they published and which they subsequently discover either to be incorrect or harmful to the individual or to a body or likely to be harmful to public moral.
We obey the Code of Conduct of Nigerian Journalism within the law of the land.
For more details, you can visit the Union of Campus Journalist (UCJ), University of Ibadan for the 1998 Code of Ethics for Nigerian Journalists (Approved by the Nigerian Press Organisation).
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