2019: Journalists tasked not to overheat the polity

The International Press Centre (IPC) has charged Journalists not to overheat the polity as the country gears up to the 2019 general elections.

The group made the call during a two-day capacity building workshop for political correspondents which aimed at equipping reporters with necessary skills needed for objective reporting in the forthcoming elections.

The Director, IPC, Lare Arogundade, said that, the call became pertinent considering the role the media plays in the politics of the country.

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According to him, reporters, if not properly trained could end up heating up the polity through unverified reports, being partisan or sentimental in their reports hence, the need for such training which aims at reminding and introducing new professional ways of reporting electoral processes to reporters.

Speaking at the workshop, Dr Ruqayyah Aliyu, Department of Information and Media Studies, Bayero University, Kano, described politics as conflict of interest.

According to her, most crises or conflicts resulting from political processes, often start way back before elections.

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“We cannot separate politics from conflicts as Politics itself, is best described as conflict of interest.

“It’s either about someone struggling to remain in power or someone trying to takeover one’s political seat.

“The process is usually characterized by series of crisis in our society which we must rise to put an end to or reduce to the barest Minimum through the media”

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Ruqayyah, also charge reporters to adopt professional ethics while reporting and avoid propagating hate speech, and publish only news worthy of publication not just for his or her immediate locality, but the nation and world at large.

To address the menace of political conflicts, she opined that, political reporters must be responsive in engaging in intensive voter education by sensitising the member of the public particularly on the consequences of election violence.

Furthermore, participants at the workshop were also trained on how to use modern social apps in the cause of their reportage to meet up with the modern ways of filing in their reports.

Mr Taiwo Obe, Founder, Journalism Clinic, said that, to be current, reporters need to use social media apps as added advantages rather than seeing such apps as threats to their profession.

He added that, although, the social media is full of fake and unverifiable news items, there are various means of verifying and confirming such news by contacting verifiable persons or authenticated accounts before rebroadcasting such news.