By Tina Amanda
Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has urged journalists to avoid misrepresentation of facts in their reports in order to suppress conflict rather than escalate it.
CISLAC stated this during a one-day capacity building for journalists, on early warning and early response reporting, organized by CISLAC in collaboration with the Open Society Foundation in Port Harcourt.
Presenting a paper titled; The Role of Media in Early Warning and Early Response Signals, Coordinator Access Africa, Dr. Dinebari Vareba, said journalists must first map conflict in any given situation, and know the context of the conflict and the stakeholders involved in the conflict before reporting.
Dr Vareba advised journalists to adopt certain code patterns and conflict-sensitive styles, to enable them to report properly and mitigate conflict.
“When Journalist is able to code certain pattern it enables them to know and report properly, it generates some trends and pattern that enables the Journalist to code.
“Reporting in conflict sensitive style helps in mitigating the conflict sometimes, it helps in reducing it and helps in bringing the conflict to an end.
“Secondly, reporting without conflict sensitive style could bounce back to the Journalist if he or she does not keep to the standard.
“The Journalist can be the matter of report, so we advise Journalists to always keep to standard, and report objectively so that they can save situations and also save their lives.”
In her contribution, Senior Programme Officer Peace and Security of CISLAC, Bertha Ogbimi, said there is a need to adopt proactive measures to improve the security system in Nigeria as the nation has been facing insecurity challenges over the years.
“Nigeria has bedeviled with insecurity challenges over the years and time to time it evolves from one level to another level. Now we are beginning to see conflict entrepreneurs diversifying, so there is a need to tackle insecurity issues in the nation and all hands have to be on deck.
“There is such a thing as citizen responsibility regardless of the platform we found ourselves. We must contribute our quota one way or the other to promote peace.
“If you find yourself in a platform you can use to promote peace, you must utilize that platform to promote peace.
“Journalists should endeavor to report sensitively, objectively, carry out detailed investigation before reporting and make sure they report conflict in a way that douses violence.
“We are here to conscientize the media. We know that journalist are aware of early warning and early response signals but we want to re-awaken their consciousness to it, so that they deploy it in the discharge of their duties.”
