No fewer than 40 journalists from the print, broadcast, and blogosphere have been trained on investigative journalism in Lokoja, Kogi State by Stallion Times Media Services, publishers of Stallion Times digital newspaper.
The training which was conducted on Wednesday under the Participatory Governance and Media Literacy project tagged, “Get Involved, Dialogue and Improve (G-DRIP)” being implemented by Stallion Times Media Service in Kano and Kogi states, was supported by the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) with funding from the MacArthur Foundation.
The G-DRIP is in collaboration with the WSCIJ under the Collaborative Media Project (Collaborating for media independence and government accountability).
Some of the objectives of the training according to the organizers, are to teach participants key skills and techniques used in investigative reporting, empower journalists to pitch perfectly for an investigative report, and teach the journalists how to gather data and present evidence to expose rights abuses, corruption or incidents.
In his goodwill message, chairman of the Kogi State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Comrade Momoh-Jimoh Adeiza applauded Stallion Times, WSCIJ and the MacArthur Foundation for investing time and resources in conducting the series of trainings aimed at developing journalists and promoting good governance in the state.
He charged the trainees to add more efforts to write good pitches and investigative stories.
In his opening remarks, the project coordinator and editor-in-chief at Stallion Times, Isiyaku Ahmed tasked the newsmen to get involved, stay focused on the tenants of journalism and dig into under-reported developmental issues in the state.
“We are expecting you to write and submit pitches for investigative reports at the end of this training workshop, we will support any pitch that meets our standard requirements.
“We are looking to good pitches and many investigative reports from Kogi as only two investigative reports were recorded in the first year of the implementation of this project”, he stated.
Idris Mohammed, the media trainer took participants through the ‘Data Driven Journalism and Presentation in Investigative Reports.’
Other training topics were, ‘Writing a Pitch for Investigative Report’ and ‘Ethical and Legal Issues in Investigative Journalism.’
Mohammad stressed that journalists must have a nose for news, especially news that requires investigation to uncover the truth while adhering to the ethics of journalism.
He added that good research, writing skills, clarity of presentation, fairness, balanced reporting, determination, and patience are necessities for a good investigative journalist.
Ishaq Dan-Imam, one of the trainees and a reporter with the Voice of Nigeria said he will be committed to ensuring implementation of the knowledge transferred to him at the workshop.
