2023 ELECTIONS: IPC DEMANDS BULLETPROOF VEST FOR JOURNALISTS
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The International Press Center, a human rights organization, reported on Tuesday that about 250 journalists who covered the 2019 general elections were assaulted and molested while carrying out their legal obligations on election days.
The organization thus urged that journalists covering the 2023 general elections be provided with protective clothing, including bullet-resistant vests.
These were said by IPC’s Executive Director, Lanre Arogundade, in Abuja when the findings of the organization’s examination of patterns in reporting on the 2023 election concerns by 15 print and online publications for October and November 2022 were presented.
As mentioned before, one of the initiatives being carried out by IPC under a project sponsored by the European Union called “Strengthening the Media for Fair, Accurate, Ethical, and Inclusive Coverage of the Electoral Process and Elections in Nigeria” is media monitoring.
The Punch, The Guardian, Daily Sun, Vanguard, ThisDay, Nigerian Tribune, The Nation, Leadership, Daily Trust, and Daily Independent, as well as websites of the Independent National Electoral Commission, were among the media that were observed.
The Cable, Premium Times, Eagle Online, RealNews, and The Authority were the five websites that were watched.
Arogundade regretted that journalists had become a threatened species in the nation and emphasized the importance of security authorities ensuring their safety during the upcoming election.
He appealed to law enforcement agencies to ensure that what happened in 2019 did not repeat itself during the forthcoming poll.
Asked if there was need for security agencies to provide journalists with bulletproof vest, he responded, “I don’t know whether that would be a violation of Police Act and I don’t know if it is allowed. But you see, we need to have this conversation with them.
“Bullet proof, why not, especially for camera men. If the police can give us bullet proof once we are accredited, we will be happy about that. But beyond that what we are saying is that on election day, know that your own life matters.
“One thing is that as journalists, we must be ethical, professional and another thing is for a conducive environment to be provided for us. And that’s why I talked about the need for political parties and government to come together and ensure that we are protected as safety matters.
“Though, no journalist was killed on election day in 2019, 250 journalists were molested across the country including some of them who were accredited, particularly by overzealous law enforcement agencies.
“So we’re using this occasion to draw the attention of INEC, governments, security agencies and their own political parties to their own responsibilities if they want us to cover these elections effectively.
“As we move towards the 2023 general elections, we’re also going to be monitoring the situation of journalists. And we’re also calling on journalists to report any any threats, or attack.
“So beyond elections, it is worrisome that not less than nine journalists have been killed and there have been no investigation, talk less of prosecution of the killers as we speak. And of course, we knew that of the Vanguard reporter (Tordue Salem). So it is a reality that journalists in Nigeria are facing a lot of threats.
“As journalists, we have some rights which we don’t exercise. If you are being asked to go and cover election in an area where there’s likely to be outbreak of violence, it is your right to ask for protection.”
Also speaking, Prof. Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, who presented the report, described media reporting of the 2023 electoral process between the period under coverage as satisfactory.
She, however, called for more reportage of the activities of vulnerable groups and other political parties aside the ‘big four’.
Speaking on the findings, she lamented that inclusivity was poor in terms of sourcing of news, adding that most media organisation analysed were practically reporting people who they have always reported.
“From the report, we found that we gave little voice to women, people with disabilities, youth and people in hard to reach areas. We should make our stories multimedia so we can speak to the non-literates people in the rural areas. So essentially we need to be deliberate about inclusivity in our reportage”, she added.
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