Intro
Mission
Values
Policy

The Board of Directors of Mulltia Limited issues this Editorial Policy, today 12 June 2019 to guide editorial operations of Enugu Metro and its allied platforms

1. PREAMBLE

Enugu Metro (https://enugumetro.com) is an online news and web portal operated by Mulltia Limited (RC. 999336), a registered publishing business in Nigeria.

The motto of Enugu Metro is Beyond News to Service. It shall be the duty of each content producer and online editor in the service of the platform to ensure that we propagate information that will benefit the communities where Enugu Metro is served.

The editorial policy of the platform is at all times set by the company. It must be understood clearly that all online editors and correspondents in the service of the company will work within the framework of policy guidelines set by the Board of Directors of Mulltia Limited.

And, whereas Management, and in this connection the Publisher, Executive Director, Managing Editor or any other executive so empowered has final decision on matters appearing in the platform in the overall interest of the company’s policy, the Board of Mulltia Limited therefore hereby sets the following rules with effect from 4 July 2019, to guide the editorial operation of Enugu Metro group of online and offline publishing platforms.

2. Objective

Enugu Metro is set up to:

  1. Be the most reliable online source for news and social connections in Nigeria.
  2. Serve Up to date global and local (glocal) news in and about Nigeria, Africa and the world, to keep our local community readers constantly well informed and safe,
  3. Create access to utility information from unadvertised Enugu businesses, organisations, products, and services in one platform for users to access hard-to-find local information.
  4. Enable access to local tools and resources that improve the living conditions of the city’s disadvantaged, and
  5. Expose and equal access to local opportunities for cost-effective home, office, and leisure management.

3. Vision & Mission

  1. Our vision is to become the Number One disseminator of utility information and access to local resources that make life easy. To achieve this goal, the Enugu Metro mission is “to facilitate equal access to information resources that customers need to survive and thrive.”
  2. Enugu Metro will respect and operate within the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, while discharging the Constitutional mandate to hold public officers accountable to the people. We shall champion the just Nigerian cause in matters that affect the destiny of its citizens.
  3. Consequently, nothing shall be reported or propagated in our platform that does not lead to a healthy development of all aspects of our national and community life, in terms of our collective aspirations and goals.

4. Strategic Objectives

To achieve our goal, the company pursues three major corporate objectives, as follows:

  1. To provide up to date information on events and news as they happen to keep the community informed and safe;
  2. To provide equal access to hard-to-find local information and resources for users who want to efficiently manage their family budget.
  3. To facilitate all-round entrepreneurship learning and support that promote business profitability and sustainable growth.
  4. To collaborate and participate in Enugu leisure and entertainment activities that deliver cost-effective entertainment.
  5. To support initiatives that enable vulnerable citizens and residents overcome socio-economic challenges of living and doing business.

5. Core Values

Based on our mission statement, our core values are embodied in the 3i’s – integrity, innovation, and inclusion.

  1. INTEGRITY: Doing everything we can to earn the trust of our stakeholders and customers. Each staff renews this trust every day by acting with honesty and honor in their business and personal dealings while in the service of the company. Integrity comes from discharging our duties with a sense of dignity and a determination to protect our names and leave a legacy of service. This is the only way that we can meaningfully touch lives, promote the truth, and live contentedly.
  2. INNOVATION: Pursuing new and creative ideas with potential to make life easy for our coworkers and customers. Excellent service is key to understanding customer pain points and learning about new opportunities to improve on our products and services. Excellent service is the beginning of the search for new and creative solutions.
  3. INCLUSION: Reimagining and recreating a company that delivers equal access to information and local resources for customers and other stakeholders. This also includes diversity in the services we offer, the persons they are delivered to, and in the recruitment and selection of the workforce. Beyond selection, the company aims to meet and surpass the basic expectation of workers that demonstrate integrity and innovation and protect their dignity in the workplace.

EDITORIAL POLICY OF ENUGU METRO

6. Editorial responsibility of the journalist

  1. We hold that journalistic quality, integrity and independence are essential virtues to discharge our professional responsibility.
  2. The journalist working for Enugu Metro and its affiliates is enjoined to work for quality, integrity, and independence by his or her investigative, objective, analytical and comprehensive treatment of news and features published in the platform.
  3. The journalist working for Enugu Metro is enjoined to improve the performance of our communities through seeking truth and sharing understanding, as well as designing interactive projects that will help to improve the life of our various communities and their members.
  4. Every story, article, or picture intended for publication must be checked and confirmed before being published. It is important that content creators must always demonstrate objectivity and fairness in their reports.

7. National Unity

  1. Enugu Metro will remain committed to the cause of Nigerian Unity and will actively promote a sense of brotherhood in every Nigerian, to develop and nurture a sense of cooperation and nationalism in matters affecting the state and its people.
  2. Will work against forces of division, be they manifest in ethnicity, religious bigotry, racism, or other parochial tendencies that detract from building a united and indivisible nation and in our community.
  3. Will continue to maintain objectivity in its presentation of news and views in the overall interest of the nation and its people. Criticism will be fair and constructive on all matters of interest published in our platforms.
  4. Enugu Metro editors must reject any story or article considered likely to incite or generate violence, crime, cruelty, ethnic and racial or religious bias.
  5. Editorial and other staff must resist ethnic, family, religious, friendship, political and monetary influences in the discharge of their functions and particularly in the presentation of news and comments in all the platforms.

8. Editorial Character

  1. Enugu Metro has a character, determined by the board of editors in council and ratified by the editor-in-chief, which its editors must maintain and foster. No story, feature, picture, or matter must be published in any of our platforms unless the editor believes it to be fair and accurate.
  2. Only a skeptical editor can save Enugu Metro content from being used to foster narrow interests which are inconsistent with its character.
  3. An editor is not bound to report uninteresting, irrelevant, or inflammatory statements by anyone.

9. Political Endorsements

  1. Enugu Metro will neither support nor endorse any political party or government for the people.
  2. However, it can evaluate and endorse candidates for office on the basis of their proven capacity, experience, and competence.
  3.  Additionally, if in the opinion of an editor, or members of the editorial board in session, any policy, action, or viewpoint of any political party or government in power is considered as deserving of support, the editorial board or the editor should give it in a one-off editorial.
  4. For purposes of checking abuses in this and other areas that engage the editorial attention of our newspaper titles, there is an ombudsman that  gives unbiased monthly assessment of Enugu Metro content. The monthly assessment are made available to staff and used as a guide to performance assessment and improvement.

10. Defamation and Libel

  1. It is the responsibility of various editors to help in protecting the good name and image of the company by rejecting any reckless and irrelevant content for publication and which have the potential to lead the company into embarrassment in any way or form.
  2. Any grave doubts about the legality, veracity, or accuracy of a matter meant for publication should be checked, re-checked, and cross-checked with the appropriate internal and external authorities, and confirmed before publication.
  3. Matters with legal implications are to be referred to the legal counsel or the company’s solicitor for advice or opinion. Claims for alleged libel published in the platform should equally be referred to the company’s legal adviser, or solicitor.
  4. In all cases, the details of any legal action must be communicated promptly to the Executive Director, and when the issue in dispute is appraised, an agreement will be reached with the chief executive on either out-of-court settlement or direct litigation.
  5. No editor is obliged to go ahead and publish matters with grave legal consequences without first obtaining the permission of the Executive Director to have such a matter published.
  6. The rule of journalism, and the practice at Enugu Metro should be , WHENEVER IN DOUBT ABOUT ANY MATTER TO BE PUBLISHED, PLEASE LEAVE OUT. Caution and vigilance must be exercised in accepting matter from contributors and news agencies to be published in the platform and which for all times, must reflect the true situation of the issue.

11. Story Treatment

  1.  Notwithstanding the foregoing, it must be understood that editors have discretion over what they consider to be in the interest of their readers, and therefore reserve the initiative to omit, alter or publish whatever they deem fit, and for which each will be held strictly liable.
  2. All content submitted for publication must have breath and depth, and accurately describe to the reader the SIX basic elements of a news report (The WHO said WHAT, to WHOM, WHERE, WHEN and HOW).
  3. A content is not complete until it has received appropriate research backgrounding (from the library or other sources) and with authoritative opinions or comments to elucidate it for the reader.
  4. At all times, the Executive Director must insist on accurate follow-up stories from the newsroom, in order to do justice to each issue and to satisfy the community that we serve.
  5. As already stated in the preamble, every story, article or picture intended for publication must be checked and confirmed before publication. In this connection, editors must maintain a balance by publishing the two sides, or all sides of a story.
  6. To reiterate, under no circumstances must a story that has not been checked at least three times, about an office or a person complained against, find its way into the platform. Editors are to be held responsible for ensuring that this rule is always enforced.

12. Promotion for Staff, Directors, and Consultants

  1. Editorial mention of staff, directors and consultants of the company must have a valuable public relations benefit to the company and must be newsworthy.
  2. Company consultants should be given editorial coverage if they happen to be newsworthy individuals.
  3. The marketing department and its staff should never give any promise of editorial support to advertisers or customers.
  4. Stories and photographs concerning staff, directors, shareholders and consultants of the company have corporate image implications and must therefore be cleared with the Executive Director or her authorized personnel before publication.

13. Advertising

  1. No special reports or regular features must be published without due knowledge and concurrence of the editor of any of our platforms for which the publication is proposed.
  2. No credit adverts are to be carried for individuals, associations, and groups without the guarantee of a senior member of management. Such credit guarantors stand the risk of having the sum deducted from their salaries and allowances in the event of default in payment.
  3. Until reviewed by the relevant association/authority, the advert commission payable to recognized agencies and advertisers is 15 per cent.
  4. The Sales and Marketing Manager or his/her authorized representative(s) has the discretion to grant an extra five percent discount for valued customers.
  5. All other requests for more than 20 percent discount must receive the authorization of the Executive Director, or her designated representative.

14. Training

  1. Training and retraining of staff journalists generally and other editorial staff shall continue to be given priority by the company to maintain a corps of experienced staff on our platforms.
  2. All entry-level editorial staff must undergo a two-week onboarding process, and a period of in-house training lasting six months, after which their appointments may be confirmed upon satisfactory performance.
  3. Non-journalism graduates who wish to work in the newsroom are to undergo a stipulated course of training and obtain a journalism diploma or certificate from a recognized journalism training institution in Nigeria before attaining 18 months service in the company.
  4. Editorial Staff must be prepared to undertake any assignment at the shortest possible time, within and outside the country.

OGBUAGU ANIKWE/Executive Director/Editor-in-Chief

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