By Joyce Remi- Babayeju
Abuja( Sundiata Post) ActionAid Nigeria in collaboration Journalists have called on government to provide the requisite tools to help in covering the realities of the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
The requisite tools include
This was contained in a communique issued at the end of a 2- Day virtual Training on Humanitarian Crisis Reporting organized by ActionAid Nigeria from 22 to 25 2020.
The media decried lack of requisite tools to cope with the challenges and new realities thrown up by the pandemic, a situation that has made many journalists rely on the dry statistics daily churned out by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, the Presidential Task Force and the task forces in the states across the country.
The media training was as part of of the Strengthening Citizens Resisitance Against Prevalence of Corruption, SCRAP-C which was attended by 39 journalists from Lagos, Kano, Akwa-Ibom, Enugu, Kaduna, Borno and FCT as well as representatives of civil society organisations.
According to the communiqué journalists as frontline workers have being covering the Covid-19 response with only very little knowledge of how the pandemic is affecting the lives of citizens, a situation which they said is unwholesome.
Referring to the New York Times, they also decried that journalists are barred from revealing the identities of persons recovering or affected by COVID-19 in Nigeria, state actors and politicians have continued to keep the information away from members of the public instead of publishing all the names of persons who have contracted the virus, those who recovered and those who succumbed to it.
They further lamented that Media organizations in Nigeria are yet to properly adjust to the new realities of operating in the COVID-19 environment, including the adoption of containment protocols into operational systems and provision of PPE and specialized gadgets for reporters.
They said that the strategy adopted by the PTF, NCDC and task forces at the state levels in handling the COVID-19 response plan has created doubt in the minds of not only members of the public but also among journalists in the country.
Meanwhile journalists have called for adequate training for media practitioners particularly for those covering in the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that there is also need for accountability and transparency mechanisms by the Federal and state governments’ COVID-19 spending for information for the public.
They also noted that a majority of journalists in the country are forced to take pay cuts without requisite insurance coverage, while media owners have compelled them to work longer and under situations which may expose them to the dreaded coronavirus.
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