Journalists across different parts of the country have commended the International Press Centre (IPC) and the Centre for Media and Society (CEMESO) for diverse training sessions that have impacted their work, specifically the coverage of elections.
The journalists gave the appraisal during the Annual Stakeholder Meeting and Scorecard on Media Coverage of Elections, under the European Support to Democratic Governance (EU-SDGN II) project.
The session featured interactions on the performance scorecard of the media as it relates to professional coverage of the electoral processes and the programmatic intervention of IPC/CEMESO under the EUSDGN project.
In his welcome address, the Executive Director of IPC, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, said that the virtual meeting was to brainstorm and review past engagements of the centers in building the capacity of journalists to enhance professionalism among media practitioners.
Mr. Arogundade explained that a lot has been done to empower media stakeholders in sanitizing the space for information accuracy.
Speaking about the review, the IPC ED explained that “the engagements we have had over the period under review including, but not limited to, capacity building initiatives, roundtables, advocacy and sharing of resource materials such as the Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage and Guidelines on Inclusive Reporting, are meant to see to the attainment of these results.
“They are in consonance with the goal of supporting the consolidation of democracy in Nigeria with “the media (broadcast, print and online media) playing pivotal roles in engaging the processes through professional coverage and reportage of the electoral process”.
He noted that the discussions at the review meeting will be useful in “designing the template for our future interventions and collaboration with electoral and democratic stakeholders.”
Also in his address the, Executive Director of CEMESO, Dr. Akin Akingbulu said that efforts of the organizations were channeled toward the capacity-building of journalists to better inform and engage their audiences beyond the traditional medium of information dissemination.
In his presentation titled ‘Enhancing professionalism among media professionals, A professor of journalism and Media Studies’, Prof Jide Jimoh explained that professionals should be on top of their games in adequate information dissemination through multimedia tools that would adequately engage their Audience.
Also speaking on monitoring infractions, deepening the democratic system, and correcting misinformation and disinformation, former Lagos State Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Qasim Akinreti stated that Journalists should encourage local language usage in their reportage to break information down into a simple language for news stories.
Participants who spoke at the virtual meeting appreciated the knowledge gained from the training organized across the country by IPC and CEMESO to build the capacity of journalists on election monitoring, multimedia storytelling, misinformation and disinformation as well as capacity building for regulatory bodies.
Speaking on media training, Mbaleme Faith, Ubong Udo, Maria Odeh, Timinepre Ohia, Fortunate Ozo, and William Osewezima said that they are better professional journalists through the skills acquired through the training and facilitated sessions that had assisted them in stepping down the training in their media organizations.
Similarly, Erhunmwunsee Stella and Ojoma Yusuf also stressed that the training had assisted regulatory bodies in strengthening Nigeria’s broadcasting code and acting to make it more effective through engagement and dialogue.