Media Expert urges journalists to be more sensitive in reporting crimes and conflicts
By Chinyere Ogbonna – African Journalists have been reminded of the need to understand that in reporting conflicts they must aim at finding lasting solutions to the crisis rather than escalate the situation.
The founder MEDRIVE, a media training outfit, Mrs. Wemimo Adewunmi gave the advice during a one-day training for African journalists, tagged Sensitive Conflict Reporting in Lagos.
Mrs. Adewunmi said that such reports must be factual, objective analytical and evident driven with visuals and audios in addition to symbolic signposts to establish the veracity of the claims and location. She emphasized that it was important to trace the history of the crisis, the primary and remote active and neutral parties involved in the conflict and what interests are at stake, but must note that there are no absolute truth.
She advised that in reporting conflicts, journalists must do a risk assessment of the conflict before going into a conflict scene to avert unnecessary attacks and subsequent loss of live. In his presentation, a human rights lawyer Mr. Evans Ufeli reminded journalists of their constitutional role of holding government’s accountable to the people as the forth estate of the realm. He noted that the premise of the media profession was not daily bread, but to hold the government accountable.
The Human rights lawyer who also mentioned that citizens on their part, also had their fundamental roles to play in ensuring a better society, by virtue of constitutional provisions, added that citizens who failed to fulfil their parts of the constitution, have no moral justification to question the government.
Also addressing the participants based on his experience as a crime reporter, a Radio Nigeria Crime Correspondent, Mr. Niran Odufayo who has reported crime for well over 13 years, said conflict reporting was a combination of actions and reactions which makes it imperative for a reporter to above every other thing, to understand and have a mental picture of what he or she was likely to encounter.
He advised participants to develop survival instincts in reporting crime and avoid making themselves conspicuous among parties, know when to conceal their gadgets, know the right time to go speak with victims to avoid endangering their lives as the perpetrators might be watching and be weary of saboteurs among the police and other stakeholders.
Participants were also exposed to first aid skills that could be adopted during crisis to save lives before medical experts could be reached. The training for journalists was part of activities commemorating the first anniversary of MEDRIVE, a media hub which came into limelight last year and has trained over a 100 journalists in various aspects of the journalism profession.
