The U.S. Consulate General, Lagos has reiterated its commitment to training and retraining of journalists in Nigeria.
Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Consulate General Lagos, Mr Stephen Ibelli, restated the Consulate General’s commitment on Tuesday via zoom in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
Ibelli said this while addressing participants at the ongoing two-day training of journalists in the South South on Investigative Health Care reporting.
The training was organised by the International Press Centre (IPC), in partnership with the US Consulate General, Lagos. According to Ibelli, journalism is an integral part of democracy as it helps check abuse and ensure accountability.
He also said journalists helped to keep the society informed, question government policies, gather information and put these information together for the public.
He explained that the importance of the training, therefore, was to demonstrate the consulate’s commitment to deepening, strengthening, and developing of journalists’ skills in investigating. He noted that the smarter the journalists were, the better the society.
Similarly, Ms Rachel Goldstein, a U.S. Public Health Professional, said journalists had important role to play in enduring that people understood public health care.
She advised journalists to continue to work to ensure that healthcare remained a priority to the government and adequate resources channeled towards the sector.
Also, Mrs Moji Makanjuola, Executive Director, International Society of Media in Public Health stressed the need for monitoring and evaluation by journalists.
Makanjuola, presenting a paper “Monitoring and Evaluation as a component of Investigative Journalism” said investigative journalism was crucial to development. She explained that in carrying out investigative journalism, three levels of information should be considered.
This she said included input level information where the journalist needs to scrutinise the area of investment, and the output level information, where the journalist needed to probe to what extent the government had gone.
She further said that journalists must be able to probe policies and not just input and output.
In the same vein, Mr Akinlabi Jimoh, Project Director, Development Communication Network (DEVCOMS), in his presentation said that a vigilant press was key to good governance.
Jimoh, whose paper presentation was “Media, Accountability and Healthcare Governance”, urged journalists to investigate beyond the borders of government.
He noted that the greater the information and research, the more convinced the public became of the need for action, stressing that awareness raising therefore had to be a priority.
