By Princess-Ekwi Ajide Abuja
A 2 day Training on investigative journalism has ended in Abuja with a call on Journalists to be intentional in their nose for news.
The Training put together by the Safer-Media Initiative, under the collaboration of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism and the MacArthur Foundation was an opportunity for select Journalists to pitch a story for further investigation.
In his welcome speech, the Executive Director/CEO , Safer-Media Initiative, Peter Iorter, said the Training became necessary after Safer-Media Initiative’s study showed 69.7 percent of communities are not satisfied with media coverage of their communities.
According to him, the need for Journalists to be capacitated to cover and uncover under reported issues in their communities is also one of the reasons for the capacity building training.
He noted that the major aim of the training is to equip participants to do impactful investigative stories and give voice to the voiceless.
The guest speaker, Professor Abiodun Adeniyi of the department of Mass Communication, Baze University, Abuja, charged Journalists not to work in harms way while doing doing the job even though the focus is on strengthening grassroots governance and accountability.
The resource person, the Editor/Head of the Investigations and Data Desk, Premium Times, Taiwo Adebayo, told Journalists that it is not enough to collect, process and disseminate information but should always look beyond the facade to expose wrong doings, hold government accountable.
He charged Journalists to be intentional in their reportage, always ask the questions why and how as well as verify claims by digging deeper to uncover the truth and publishing facts that people may not want to be published.
According to the resource person, for a story to be investigative, it must promote public interest, someone must be held accountable at the end, it must be deeply researched, enlightening, original, gap filling and facts based.
Mr. Taiwo however cautioned journalists that investigative journalism is not about what they want but what they can prove hence it should not be done based on sentiments.
