The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) on Thursday, July 27, 2023, trained media practitioners in Nasarawa State on early warning and early response reporting (EWERS).
The one-day media training which took place at Al-Vari Hotel, Keffi was filled with an educative and interactive session with journalists from different media organizations in the State and the Federal Capital Territory.
The Editor in Chief, Global Sentinel Media, Senator Iroebu who trained the Journalists on the “Role of the Media in Building Effective Early Warning and Early Response Mechanism for Communities-Conflict Sensitive and Objective Reportage made the participants understand that data collection, risk analysis and providing information with recommendations to targeted stakeholders is a crucial component of EWERS.
He, however, urged the News Men to avoid sensational headlines that could trigger conflict or scare their audience in their reportage and focus more on interpretative reporting which gives the reader everything he or she needs to know about a given development.
Speaking earlier, a peace and security expert who works with CISLAC, Bertha Ogbimi stressed the need for Journalists to have a good synergy with security agencies which will enable them to play their part in EWERS.
Ogbimi further pointed out some of the challenges faced by Journalists, while she noted that the Organisation is doing its best to tackle some of the issues she raised which they did by training Government, Private and Local Security agencies, Community Heads and Community Observers in the State on 25 and 26 July 2023 respectively.
Also, the M&E personnel of the Organisation Lovelyn Agbor Gabriel shared ways in which synergy can be created between the Media, Security agencies, Community Heads and Community Observers which the Organisation will implement with immediate effect.
A journalist working with Maloney FM in Keffi, Shola Olaniyi while reacting to the program said the training was eye-opening and very educative.