The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC)/Transparency International in Nigeria, in collaboration with Transparency International, has sought an immediate transition of the Whistle-blower Policy into legislation by the National Assembly.
The legislation, according to CISLAC will encourage proactive information provision and ensure data secrecy, while preventing reprisals that discourage media oversight activities.
The demand was made during a one-day training for journalists on financial management, gender and operational disparities anti-corruption reportage.
The workshop which held recently in Lagos with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, aimed to develop journalists’ research skills and understanding of corruption risks and red flags in the defence and security sector, to enhance accurate and verifiable reportage.
At the end of the training, participants developed a communique where it was observed that although the anti-corruption reportage is instrumental in enhancing transparency and accountability in the defence and security sector, the media has hitherto faced persistent attacks, intimidation and harassment exposing operational disparities, financial mismanagement and procurement secrecy in the sector.
To address the gaps, it was recommended that there is a need to resist socio-economic pressure in information gathering, coverage and reportage of the defence and security sector to prevent reported partiality and restore public confidence in journalism.
The communique also reads in part that “journalists should avoid the temptation for over-sensationalised reportage through strict adherence to factual objectivity and verifiable information gathering and reportage.
“Mitigating defence and security corruption through deliberate navigation of the defence and security financial, personnel and procurement activities, to fortify verifiable and factual reportage that raises public consciousness.
“The federal government should harmonise the contradictory provisions of the FOI Act and Official Secrets Act to encourage independent and verifiable information gathering and reportage of the defence and security activities.
“Media houses should organise training and re-training programmes for journalists on specific areas of the defence and security sector, to boost technical and research capacity for in-depth coverage and oversight of issues, as well as verifiable reportage.
“The Security sector should enhance collaboration through constructive relationship building with the defence and security information to elicit privileged information to fortify accurate and verifiable reportage.”
Speaking to BONews in an interview after the training, Communication specialist and Program officer CISLAC, Jimoh Abubakar advised journalists to focus more on investigations and objectivity in their reportage to ensure constructiveness in their report.
Abubakar also added that journalists should ensure that they restore public confidence and guide themselves against external accusations, “because you can be sued if you publish something that is not true so, you have to be very careful.”
Other sessions at the training focused “Oversight Role of the Media and Defence Anti-corruption Reportage in a Civic Space” and “Setting Agenda in the Defence and Security: Navigating the Operational, Financial Management and Gender Activities.”