Image Merchants Promotions Limited (IMPR), the publishers of PRNigeria, commenced training of journalists covering security and the economy based in Abuja, as part of the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development, Inclusion and Accountability project powered by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ).
IMPR is one of the 26 media organisations under the collaborative media that uses media campaigns and fact checking, investigative reporting to influence positive actions by government and other relevant stakeholders. The initiative is targeted at promoting media independence and fostering accountability and transparency, especially at sub-national levels.
While speaking at the opening ceremony, the Editor-in-Chief of PRNigeria, Yushau Shuaib, applauded the uniqueness of the collaborative media initiative which he believes will lead to positive impacts. “We at PRNigeria will focus on Sub-National Investigative Reporting on Economic sustainability and Security Project (SNIRESS) for positive impact. ” he said.
Yusuf Alli, Head, Northern Operations of The Nation Newspaper, alongside a communication scholar, Suleiman Yau’ Sule, lamented the attitude of Nigerian journalists towards investigative reporting to drive change. According to them, investigative reports have since become the ‘missing gap’ in Nigerian journalism. Alli urged participants at the workshop to be passionate about building their media careers around investigative journalism through networking even as he highlighted the importance of protecting the source(s) of sensitive information.
Sule in his lecture titled, “Humanitarian Journalism: A panacea for conflict prone areas,” lamented that despite the myriads of socio-economic woes being battled by the country, journalists still pay little attention to these cases. He explained that engaging in humanitarian journalism will unravel causes and proffer possible solutions and prevent future cases.
