Media experts have charged journalists to hold political and other public office holders to account by using relevant tools like the Freedom of Information Act and fact-checking to gather information needed to aid accurate reportage.
The charge was given during a two-day media capacity building workshop held in Port Harcourt, organized by the International Press Center in partnership with the European Union. The workshop focus was on credible elections and democratic governance with emphasis on combating information disorder. Forty practising journalists drawn from the South-south and South-East regions participated in training.
Executive director of IPC, Mr. Lanre Arogundade said the media training is geared towards adequately equipping journalists with relevant tools that will aid them in gathering and fact-checking information for accurate reportage.
Emphasizing on democratic governance and post-election, Arogundade said the media would do better by reporting in public interest, holding government actors accountable to their promises to the people.
“We are looking at democratic governance and post-election, particularly when it comes to promises made by elected politicians. We believe, that we need to use relevant tools to follow up on those promises and claims that they are also making about what has been done, what has not been done. “So, that is why we felt we should talk about freedom of Information Act and fact-checking.”
He also emphasized on the importance of advancing the cause of women in media reports.
The IPC executive director urged journalists to monitor how politicians respect their electoral pledges, holding them accountable in public interest, noting, “We want journalists to understand s that they can be catalyst of good governance.”
One of the resource persons, Mr Edetan Ojo, executive director, Media Rights Agenda, said the Freedom of Information Act is an important legal tool that enables citizens, especially journalists, to get reliable information from public institutions and officials.
He added that in the current digital age, fake news and inaccurate information abound, making it very important that journalists have access to instruments that enable them to gather reliable and accurate information.
Ojo regretted that the FOI Act has not been significantly used by journalists. “Unfortunately, our experience have been that over the last twelve years or so, since the law has been in existence journalists have not made significant use of it”.
For greater impact he said, the training objective was s to create awareness on the FoI Act), sensitize journalists about the existence of the law, and build their capacity on how to use the law effectively,” stressing that in the past, governments have operated largely in secrecy, and that culture of secrecy is inbuilt in governance and will take time to break.
He expressed hope that things will get better.
“I believe that through persistent and consistent use of the law, we will gradually begin to see a new reality where government officials understand that they are under a legal obligation to provide citizens with information, and when journalists alongside other citizen are using the law to demand for information, they need to provide the information; failing to do so will obviously attract consequences.”
On her part, Dr. Titilayo Osuagwu, a lecturer in the department of broadcasting, University of Port Harcourt, stressed the need for the media to increase gender equity reports. She said gender equity reports will encourage women’s complementary role in policy making in the country.
Dr Osuagwu said women should be deliberate in advancing one another’s’ cause. “The issue of women opposing each other has to go into oblivion. We need to support each other, continue to uplift even other women, for us to break glass ceiling.”
Participants at the workshop commended the organizer for new learnings.
