IndyPress Organization wishes to inform the students’ community at the University of Ibadan that the ideals of journalism in the exercise of our functions will not be compromised.

As an organization, it has become imperative to make this firm stance known in the face of many attempts by aspiring students’ leaders, who despite all refusals, have unrepentantly keep reaching out to our journalists  to ”vet their manifestoes, or groom them ahead of press nights”.

Press Nights, we strongly uphold, are formal contacts between a body of the Press and aspiring student leaders. And for one, these nights of moments are avenue to critically assess the true worthiness of each aspiring candidate, through metrics which are aimed at impacting the University as a community positively.

As such, we rightly consider the evaluation of all aspiring candidates an official business, and must be done in an ethical manner, without compromise.

As an organization, appreciative of the role we must play in the maintenance of a democratic, open and progressive University system, ‘journalism must be at all times independent voices which should not act on behalf of special interests, whether it is personal, political or corporate‘.

It, therefore, unmistakably in our view, defeats the purpose of a press night when an aspiring student leader’s sincere identity has been ‘helped’ and ‘masked’ by a journalist, who may have been called upon to ‘dress’ either the plans or other evaluative metrics of a candidate ahead of the main encounter.

Committed to responsible journalism, IndyPress resolutely warn individuals or corporate groups against any further attempt to lure campus journalists, especially in ways that are ethically unacceptable.

We strongly implore students, students’ leaders, aspirants and individual campus journalists to embrace our ethics, rather than disregard it.