Agencies Step Up Media Training For April Elections

Agencies Step Up Media Training For April Elections
Qasim Akinreti, Lagos

International agencies have embarked on capacity building and dialogue with the Nigerian media, on the effective coverage of scheduled April 2011 general election.

The UNDP, US Consulate's Public Affairs section and the US based International Republican Institute, IRI, in collaboration with the International Press Center , IPC are some of the agencies.

The UNDP programme is run under the aegis of the Democratic Governance for Development Project, DGDP, with basket donors from the European Union and the UK 's Department for International Development, DFID.

Regional workshops

As part of the project, a three-week workshop for Editors and Media owners in Nigeria, on the successful conduct of the April general election has been planned for three centers, namely Abuja, for the Northern Zone; Lagos, for Southwest and Port Harcourt for the South East and South-South geo-political areas.

The workshop would focus on Pre-Election Coverage, Use of Resources, Hazards of Election Coverage and the Challenges Ahead of Regulatory Authorities.

Over 140 Media owners and Journalists would be involved in the exercise.

The International Republican Institute, IRI, has scheduled training for Journalists, who will feed a dedicated news website for the updates on the elections.

Similarly, the IRI delegation has commenced visits to political parties' headquarters' and media organisations across the country, to sensitise them on the challenges involved with coverage of elections.

The US Consulate organised trainings on the use of internet resources to monitor elections.

About 60 journalists from Lagos and Ogun state participated. 

At the end of the training, Journalists were encouraged to open blogs for effective political coverage and incisive analysis of political developments in their respective areas.

Yinka