By Ahmad Umar
Ahead of the 2019 general elections, a One-day training workshop has been held for working journalists in Gombe State, North East of the country.
The training which was organised by the State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists was aimed at acquainting the participants with their roles before, during and after elections
Declaring the workshop open, the State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Umar Suleiman, represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Saidu Baba Gadam advised the participants to always stick to the ethics of the profession in their reportage.
He enjoined them to be courageous and professional in the discharge of their responsibilities and should not allow to be used by politicians and security operatives during elections.
He commended the leadership of the union for organising such timely training for its members aimed at building their capacity.
Chairman of the council, Saidu Babpa Malala said, the idea of organising the workshop was to train members on capacity building and to also equip them ahead of 2019 general elections.
A paper entitled, the role of media in effective electioneering campaign reportage in developing context, was presented by a former Executive Director, Federal Radio Corporation Kaduna and Chief Executive Officer of LYS Communication, Lawal Yusuf Saulawa,
Saulawa urged the media or journalists not to be used by politicians or any person in power to report or to broadcast story that would destabilise, Cause confusion during the election.
“The Media, especially state owned should not use or allow itself to be used by the owner or the power to announce false results as was done by Ekiti state Radio during the last Governorship election in the state for which the NBC immediately closed down the station.
“The media’s role in an election extends to monitoring of the election process to this extent; media’s emphasis should no longer be limited to when how the leader voted or were registered.
About 80 working journalists in the State participated in the training.