A university don, in the department of Mass Communication, Benue State University, Makurdi, Dr Caleb Chile has attributed the rising cases of violation and human rights abuse to the dearth of investigative reporting with a call on journalists to live up to their responsibility of being the voice for the voiceless.
Chile who made the lamentation during a two-day training organized by a non-governmental organization, under the aegis of Concerned Women International Development Initiative (CWIDI), in Makurdi, the Benue State capital for journalists on human rights reporting for vulnerable population particularly commercial sex workers urged them to always protect the rights of vulnerable population in their reportage.
He said, “though many journalists have lost their lives in the course of insisting on the right thing by exposing the ills of the society, but I want to urge you not to be deterred, do not give up on your chosen profession because you are the mirror and watchdog of the society, you represent the voiceless, without you, the country and the world over will become a lawless society.”
The communication expert in his presentations, titled; ‘Reporting Human Rights Stories’ ‘Interviewing Techniques for Human Rights Stories’ emphasized that the society will be better up if critical issues that bother on corruption, violation and abuses of human rights especially the vulnerable among other hidden issues are investigated and thrown open to the public.”
Chile also lamented a situation whereby some security personnel who are saddled with the responsibility of protecting lives of all, including the vulnerable population would allegedly turn around to violate their rights by abusing and parading them, particularly the commercial sex workers.
While commending the media for hiding the identity of the vulnerable population in most of their reportage, Chile also caution journalists against name label even as he said, except in a situation where any of them come out publicly to reveal that she or he is a commercial sex worker.
“I urge journalists to befriend commercial sex workers so that they can build trust in them and be able to tell you their own side of the story especially what they go through in the hands of some security personnel and the general public who patronize them,” he said.
In her welcome address, the convener of the training, Becky Gbihi gave some of the objectives of the training to include promoting the rights of sex workers as enshrined in the national gender policy and other legal and policy framework on violence against women and girls.
According to her, “CWIDI, a non-governmental organization is out to also promote gender equality, prevent gender-based violence, ensure full and equitable participation of women in decision making, achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health for young people to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS and other health related issues.”
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