Increase Bar On Media Practice, Onumah Tells S/E Journalists

Journalists in the southeast states have been called upon to increase the bar of media practice to elicit improved governance within the region.

Executive director, Ikenga Media and Cultural Awareness Initiative, IMCAI, the publishers of Ikengaonline, Dr Chido Onumah, made the call in Owerri, during a one day capacity training for journalists on

“Improving the Quality of Journalism in the South-East for Good Governance”.

Onumah disclosed that since the return of the country to civil rule in 1999, the southeast geopolitical zone was perhaps one of the worst governed zones in terms of the people receiving what is regarded as democratic dividends, saying their elections had been the “poorest in terms of integrity of the votes and safety of voters.

Civil and personal liberties have often been trampled upon and basic infrastructures lacking. When you add the ravaging insecurity in the South-East, what you get is a picture of a democracy in peril”.

The fiery journalist queried if journalists in the region had contributed to the poor quality of governance saying “It is worth asking then whether the media in the southeast is complicit in the poor quality of governance? What is the quality of the media in the region? Has the media abdicated its watchdog role assigned to it in section (22) of the Nigerian constitution 1999 (as amended)? What can be done to improve the quality of journalism practice in the southeast “, Onumah asked.

He called on the participants to deploy the new knowledge acquired from the workshop to improve the quality of their reportage for the good of the public.

Further, he disclosed that IMCAI had in the past three years helped in building the capacity of 55 journalists in the south-east through media workshops, drawn from Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states on fundamentals of investigative journalism, media and information literacy and how to report from a treacherous environment.

Dr Onumah maintained that the main essence of journalism was to improve good governance through investigative reports, and called on the participants to push for the development of the south-east through their reportage.

According to him, IMCAI vision as an online media platform was focused mainly on the events and happenings within and around the southeast, adding that the workshop was supported by the MacAuthur Foundation, through the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.

One of the resource persons and correspondent of Premium Times, Chinagorom Ugwu who spoke on the topic “Moving the needle; the kind of journalism that engenders good governance”, noted that journalists had four roles to perform which were: information dissemination, interpreter role, public mobiliser role and adversarial role.

Ugwu called on the participants to focus more on investigative reports to question the activities of the government, which he said would in turn enhance good governance within the region.

On his part, the second resource person, Mr Charles Ogugbuaja of The Guardian newspaper, who spoke on “Ethical Journalism in an Era of Technology”, charged the participants to imbibe professionalism in their reportage, adhere to safety measures, and avoid unprofessional conduct.

Journalists from print, broadcast and online media organisations attended the one-day workshop.