ICIR trains journalists on human rights reporting

The International Centre for Investigative Journalism (ICIR) has organised a two-day training for journalists on reporting human rights related issues.

The training, organised for journalists in the federal capital territory, in partnership with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), was tagged: ‘Human rights accountability reporting.

Areas covered in the exercise were process and sources of investigative journalism, conflict-sensitive reporting, reporting on vulnerable groups and safety, issues surrounding legal and ethical concepts of human rights reporting among others.

Dayo Aiyetan executive director of ICIR, who was one of the facilitators, said the centre organised the training to bridge the “knowledge gap” in issues concerning human rights in the country.

“We want a situation where as many journalists in Nigeria will have the capacity to do the kind of critical reporting that needs to be done to make government officials accountable,” he said.

Aiyetan added that while human rights can never be over reported, there needs to be a steady effort to put the government on their toes to respect these rights.

He also said the centre is bringing the media and civil society organisations together for effective collaboration on issues relating to human rights.

“If the media and the civil society have the same role, doesn’t it make sense that we work together?” he asked.

“But the truth is that the two are so suspicious and antagonistic to each other that we have never really worked together.

“And we see the necessity to work together to achieve the required goal. That is why we are trying to bring them together and also address challenges involved in the two collaborating with each other.”