Over 20 practicing journalists drawn from the North-East and other states of the country have participated in a capacity-building workshop to intensify the coverage and reportage of the North-East to drive sustainable development.
The 2-day media training organised by Neptune Prime Network Limited, publishers of Neptune Prime online, magazine, and Neptune TV in collaboration with the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), ended on Friday, 20th May 2022 in Abuja.
In his welcome address, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and publisher of Neptune Prime, Dr Hassan Gimba, said the workshop is aimed at upgrading the professional capacity of the journalists as the fourth estate of the realm to publish investigative reports on humanitarian issues from the North-East.
He urged participants to highlight plights of the North-East region in order to attract attention, and enhance government, private organisations accountability which will trigger development across all sectors.
A keynote speaker at the workshop, a media consultant, Mr Livingstone Aminu Yusuf, gave an overview of “Searchlight on Humanitarian Issues”, and asserted that the North-Eastern region is at the lowest ebb of every development index in the country, hence, the need to highlight the challenges of the people to enhance necessary development cannot be overemphasized.
Also speaking during the workshop, the Chairman of Neptune Prime Editorial Board, professor MK Othman, charged media practitioners to focus on the suffering and neglected stories of the people and draw the attention of relevant authorities to the plight of the North-Eastern people who have suffered insurgency for more than 12 years.
Some issues discussed at the workshop include the identification of the minority and marginalized groups in the North-East and the campaign for their inclusion in all indices of development, the principles of fact-checking, and the need to avoid spreading false news or propaganda.
