The Executive Director of the International Press Centre (IPC), Lanre Arogundade has expressed interest in holding physical training with Ondo State Journalists after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Arogundade said this during a webinar training for Ondo State Journalists aimed at building and strengthening capacity of political Journalists in order to consolidate the efforts of INEC towards the 2020 Ondo State Governorship elections.
He also said that the capacity building session was to provide the participants with needed tools for coverage of the forthcoming election in a professional way.
The online training, which featured participants across different media organisations within and outside the state dwelt significantly on the need for Political Correspondents to avoid hate speech and fact-check information by combining computer science with basic journalism techniques in order to avoid dishing out fake news during election day reportage.
Speaking at the training, Africa Check Editor, Mr. David Ajikobi urged Journalists to be conscious of their sources of information and be ready to fact-check in order to avoid biases, which affects judgement when writing as a result of tribal, political and religious sentiments.
He also enjoined journalists to avoid being used in writing sponsored contents which might not be true during election. Mr. Ajikobi stressed the importance of being ethical and professional in the discharge of their duties during election reportage.
Also speaking, the Editor-in- Chief, Guardian, Newspaper, emphasised the need for journalists to be conflict sensitive in reporting the complex diversities that make up Ondo State as an entity; stressing that, reportage, must be factual and must not stir up violence.
According to Oloja, It is important for Journalists to read the Nigerian Media Code of Ethical Conduct to be reminded of some ethical values that used to drive the profession.
While speaking on the issue of difficulty in getting information from INEC the CPS to INEC Chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi promised to wade into the matter as access to right information is key to achieving a free and fair election.
He however assured that the recent judgement of the Appeal court on the reinstatement of the delisted political parties would not in any way affect preparations for the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States.
Oyekanmi therefore lauded the media, reiterating that the media has been a great partner in the quest for credible free and fair election.
“The media has put us on our toes at all times, critically analysing actions and decisions, praising us when we have done well, and criticising us when we have not done well. We are extremely grateful for the partnership”, he said.
Meanwhile, addressing the session, the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ondo State, Mr. Adetona Aderoboye applauded the initiative while encouraging the participants to take advantage of the training and empower themselves.