In order to equip journalists on prerequisite skills and knowledge on safety and mental wellbeing especially in the build up to the 2023 general election, the International Press Centre (IPC) held a two-day workshop for media practitioners.
The training, which took place in Kano State, focused on safety and security consciousness and mechanisms in investigative reporting and coverage of conflict dangerous assignments. It also aimed to curb the rising hostilities against journalists and media professionals in the country.
Twenty five female and male journalists from online, print and broadcast media who participated at the workshop were taken through lectures on entrenching ethics and professionalism, building safety and security consciousness and giving deserved attention to physical and mental health.
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Speaking at the event, media monitoring officer of IPC, Omolola Arogundade said that the training was designed as part of steps towards providing appropriate response to relentless assaults on journalists and media institutions by both state and non-state actors, with the perpetrators rarely facing justice.
The three resource persons who made presentations were drawn from the academia. Nura Ibrahim, head, Department of Information and Media Studies in the Faculty of Communication, Bayero University, Kano facilitated the sessions on ‘data and digital security and related security issues in investigative reporting and coverage of dangerous assignments’ while Ruqayyah Yusuf Aliyu, a lecturer with the department of information and media studies in Bayero University, Kano, took the participants through ‘Investigative journalism or reporting: understanding the challenges and possible dangers.’ Haruna Yakub, a medical doctor with Aminu Kano teaching hospital in the Department of Psychiatry facilitated the sessions dealing with ‘Attacks on journalists, mental health challenges and the imperative of effective management.’
During the training, it was observed that journalists’ welfare in Nigeria has worsened over the decades without concrete efforts to improve the situation.
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