A media/PR consultant, Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu, has decried the deplorable level at which media professionalism is eroding in the country.

Ukegbu recently told Magic FM Aba that if the ugly trend is not urgently addressed it will spell doom for the nation’s development, adding that no nation survives without the media.

He said: “The media coordinates every other sphere of the sociopolitical and economic structure of a country, and is the last hope of a nation even if every other hope has collapsed.

“We cannot fold our hands and watch this important segment of our national existence collapse.

“Charlatans have taken over the industry and the industry is fast crumbling like a pack of cards.

“The worst hit is the social media where no atom of media professionalism is demonstrated. Ethical issues such as balance, fairness are thrown to the wide wind.

“The advent of the new media has turned everybody who can operate a smart phone to a media practitioner. Hardly you can differentiate quackery from professionalism in the media industry these days.

“The gate keeping process of the media is now a wide concept as it is now a garbage in, garbage out practice these days.”

Ukegbu therefore called on the media regularly bodies to step up actions to check this menace.