In the bid to ensure good and professional coverage of the 2019 general election in the country, major stakeholders in the media met on Tuesday to review and update the Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage.
The first ever Nigeria media Code of Election Coverage was launched on October 30, 2014, some months to the 2015 general elections.
The Tuesday stakeholders meeting, which was held in Ikeja, Lagos state, was convened by the International Press Centre, IPC.
The gathering was necessary to ensure that “irresponsible coverage” of the election was prevented, according to organizers of the workshop.
To achieve the goal of a proper election coverage, the participants said some measures needed to be put in place to enhance the process.
The Director of IPC, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, in his opening remarks, said the meeting was as a result of the need to ensure the credibility and integrity of the media in the coverage of elections.
His words: “The meeting represents an important milestone in the quest to ensure the credibility and the integrity of the media in the coverage of elections; the underlying principle being that a credible media is in a stronger position to serve as catalysts of credible and acceptable elections.
“The importance of a code that guides the professional and ethical conduct of journalists covering elections cannot be overemphasized. The reason for this is not far-fetched. It is simply because during election time, a journalist performs all the core functions of the media almost simultaneously including servicing the political system, providing information for citizens to make informed choices, holding government accountable, giving voice to the voiceless, monitoring campaigns and so on.
Read also: Stakeholders meet to review and update Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage.
“Given the conflict in the nature of politicking and the tendency for information or mis-information overload during electioneering, especially in the Nigerian context, the election journalist is supposed to perform all these functions with utmost care.”
According to the Director of IPC, due to time constraint, they did not record the desired success that was intended in 2015.
He said it was their desire to start earlier this time around to achieve a higher level of success in 2019.
The sessions were chaired by Mr. Gbemiga Ogunleye, Provost, Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) and former Commissioner for Information in Rivers State and former Acting MD of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mrs. Ibim Semenitari.
