The International Press Centre (IPC) a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), has trained political correspondents drawn from North-West and North-Central states of Nigeria on professional and digital reporting.

The two-day training workshop that is organised by the group on Wednesday in Abuja, seeks to equip political reporters and add value to their reportage as the 2019 general election approaches.

Dr Ruqayyah Aliyu, a Lecturer, Department of Information and Media Studies, Bayero University, Kano (BUK), described politics as conflict of interest.

According to Aliyu, most crises or conflicts recorded during election period start before election.

She said that the role of the media in addressing such conflicts which resulted in loss of lives and property in some cases could not be over-emphasised.

To avoid this, she said, a reporter must not be partisan; must avoid fake news; avoid propagating hate speech and uphold journalism ethics in election process and outcome.

Furthermore, Aliyu said that a reporter must report news worthy of publication and not just for his or her immediate locality, but the nation and world.

To address the menace of political conflicts, the Don said, political reporters must be responsive in engaging in intensive voter education by sensitising members of the public, particularly to the consequences of election violence.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 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 with the world, reporters needed to use social media apps as added advantage rather than seeing such apps as threats to their profession.

Obe said although the social media was full of fake and unverifiable news items, there were various means of verifying and confirming such news by contacting verifiable persons or authenticated accounts before re-transmitting such news. (NAN)

– Oct. 17, 2018 @ 16:39 GMT |