ABUJA – A veteran journalist, Mrs Nkechi Okoronkwo, on Friday, urged journalists to familiarise themselves with environmental issues to improve their reportage of complex matters about the environment.
Okoronkwo, a Deputy Editor-in-Chief (DEIC) in the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), gave the advice at the monthly interaction session of the agency in Abuja.
She said that the challenges of the environment had made the global community to focus on how to protect and sustain it.
“The global community is focusing attention on how to achieve sustainable development of the environment.
“The issues about environment are topical and how to protect it from destruction through human activities is a major concern to the global community, unlike in the past.
“We must report them so as to educate the people, enlighten them and inform them.
“By reporting on this issues we are pushing for policies, you are pushing for actions that are necessary to address these challenges in order to bring lasting solutions to them.
“If you do not write about them, people will not know about them, people will not talk about them and the necessary action required by the government and non-governmental agencies and even we as humans will not be able to know what to do.“
Okoronkwo said it was the responsibility of reporters to inform the public about issues relating to the environment for their safety and well being.
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“Environment news is also interdependent with other sectors. In other words, it has economic, political, sociological, and public health connections.
“More importantly, environmental reporting is emotional because of its impact on people.
“This means therefore, that good environmental reporting should be the same as any other good journalism,“ the deputy editor-in-chief said.
She, however, said that a lot was expected of the reporter covering the sector in view of its technical and complex nature as well as its importance to all aspects of human development.
“Environment reporters act as educators; they explain the technical materials and in reporting the environment you also make the desired impact.
“You have to make your report interesting, readable and comprehensible.
“Because if you write stories that are full of technical jargons that are not well explained, that the impact of what you are talking about is not understood, you have not communicated, you have not informed, you have not educated and you have not enlightened anybody.
“So, you must be able to write clearly and you should be able to provide relevant background information for your stories to make sense.“
Okoronkwo advised environment reporters to ensure that their stories were relevant, clear, balanced, interesting and creative.
She said, “Reporters should think like ecologists and look for connections to come up with new story ideas.“ (NAN)[eap_ad_3]
Veteran journalist tasks journalists on reporting environment
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