Media

Anthony isibor.

LANRE Arogundade, executive director, International Press Centre, IPC, has called on the government to make media outlets vital allies of the election management body in any society.

Speaking at the INEC Strategic Interactive Meeting with Online Publishers on ‘Strengthening INEC/Media Partnership for the Consolidation of Free, Fair, Credible and Inclusive Elections’ in partnership with the International Press Centre and the Institute for Media and Society in Lagos on Wednesday, November 24, 2021.

Arogundade said: “Beyond the Electoral Amendment Bill, we need to continue to emphasize that strangulating regulatory frameworks such as we have also seen in the bills for the amendment of the National Broadcasting Act 2004 and the Nigeria Press Council Act 2020 will not only undermine the constitutional obligation imposed on the media to monitor governance and hold government accountable to the people but also hinder media independence and serve as obstacles to the performance of the media’s core functions during the electoral processes and elections – functions that I must stress, make media outlets vital allies of the election management body in any society.

The meeting which was an opportunity to review the successes and the challenges of the past while contributing to the development of a compass on the way forward also discussed the important role of the media in the development of democracy.

According to Arogundade, these functions include:  

• Relaying the information citizens require to enable them to make informed judgments.
• Monitoring government and others and reveal abuses of political power
• Reporting politics day-to-day as well as during election campaigns
• Providing civic and voter education
• Crystallising the main currents of public opinion
• Giving voice to wide a range of interest groups especially the under-represented groups; and,
• Providing the forum within which the public debate takes place.

He emphasized the importance of online media in the consolidation of democracy through these functions, and urged media professionals to remain committed to the ethics of their profession.

“For now, however, the much we could say is that IPC’s monitoring of the 2019 elections revealed that the media, including online media outlets endeavoured to give more access to the political parties and candidates, especially through political debates, avoided hate speech and were more conflict-sensitive than in previous elections. There were, however, question marks over access for women, youths and PLWDs. These outcomes show that the Election Code is a major tool for contributing to free, fair, credible, peaceful and inclusive elections and we should make it work better.    

“The online media environment is a very crucial one for the performance of the above-enumerated roles. The effective performance could, however, be challenging due to the phenomenon of fake news, which has significant presence in the online and social media space and the incursion of the so-called citizen journalists into the information sharing arena. Under the confusing atmosphere, government tends to always group everyone together and makes it look as if nothing else happens in the online media other than the dissemination of fake news and hate speech. 

“Much as we have defended press freedom and Internet rights of journalists operating in the online space, it is imperative for us to renew our commitment to compliance with ethical and professional standards, fact-checking and factual accuracy in order to enable citizens, the media regulatory agencies and hopefully the government to separate the whiff from the chaff. More importantly, we have to earn deserved respect to be seen as reliable partners in the delivery of credible elections. 

“It is heartwarming that GOCOP and its members have collaborated with the International Press Centre in the course of implementing Component 4b: Support to the Media of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) project, the strategic and specific objective of which is to enable the media to “promote fair, accurate and ethical coverage of the electoral process’. The broader objectives include the promotion of equitable access for parties and candidates and significant visibility for women, youths and people living with disabilities. It is also pursuant to the objectives of the EU-SDGN project that we are hereby partnering with INEC and IMS to convene this forum.

He said that GOCOP as a body and many online publishing outfits were part of the revision, update, publication and massive dissemination of the Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage ahead of the 2019 elections.

“As a self-regulatory framework, the Election Code imposed the core responsibilities of equitable access, professional social responsibility, good ethical conduct, avoidance of hate speech and conflict-sensitivity on journalists and other media professionals. In a couple of weeks, we shall be convening a stakeholder’s forum to assess the impact of the Code and develop mechanisms for effective enforcement in future. We look forward to your active participation. 

He also enumerated the efforts of the ICP towards ensuring credible elections in Nigeria some of which are published on its websites at www.ipcng.org and www.ndr.org.ng.

– Nov. 26, 2021 @ 10:45 GMT |

A.I

Tags: INEC/Media Partnership International Press Centre IPC Lanre Arogundade