Focus On Context, Not Conflict, UK Don Advises Nigerian Journalists

Dr Abdullahi Abubakar, a Senior Lecturer, Department of Journalism, City University, London, has advised journalists to highlight the context of issues rather than focusing on the conflict itself when dealing with conflict news stories.

Abubakar gave the advice in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja on the sidelines of a two-day workshop on Ethical Reporting for Journalists.

According to the scholar, journalists reporting conflicts should endeavour to report accurately and responsibly in a way that their reports will be for the benefit of the society.

“The key ethical principles journalists have to consider while reporting conflict or anything is that they have to get their facts right; accuracy is number one in journalism; also, balance, fairness and responsibility are key issues journalists should consider. Essentially when dealing with conflicts, emphasise on the context of the problem rather than focusing on the conflict itself; if you focus so much on the killings, fighting and deaths, the tendency is you make the matter worse.

“And as media organisations, we are part of the society and our responsibility is to help build the society, and one way of doing that is to report those issues accurately and responsibly. So your platform becomes more of a tool to help resolve crisis rather than instigate or escalate the crisis.

“In Nigeria, we have so many conflicts, we have Boko Haram insurgency, Niger Delta militancy; to some extent, the Shi’ite Police/Army conflict. We have separatist movement campaign and so many things that are actually bedevilling our society. And so, journalists need to understand the basics while covering conflicts, and our workshop today and yesterday is to help journalists understand those ethical practices that would help them deal with the situation,“Abubakar said.

He said Nigerian journalists could learn from journalists in other parts of the world on how to focus more on victims of conflicts rather than the perpetrators of the crimes.

“If you ignore the perpetrators of violence, and they realise that the media has no interest in them, the tendency is that they may probably stop perpetrating these violence. Also if you pay more attention to the victims, there is a tendency that the public will sympathise more with those victims and ignore the perpetrators; this is another way of reducing violence.

“Nigerian journalists have many lessons to learn from other journalists like the cases where terror attacks took place in Paris, London, New York, and New Zealand. Journalists in those areas made sure they did not become tools or agents of terror or terrorism by shifting the focus away from the extremists and focusing on the victims and heroes,“ he said.

Dr Theophilus Abbah, in a separate interview with NAN, said knowledge of the ideologies and strategies of terrorists can aid journalists in reporting conflict issues more accurately and not become pawns as intended by the terrorist.

He also noted that profiling of the sect and the individuals can give a broader perspective and understanding of their intentions and help inform journalists on reportage concerning them.

“Profiling is for intelligence gathering, it’s for understanding the ideologies and objectives of these groups and sects. Find out what they have been up to, who their leaders are, what do they believe in, what is their political leaning and what is their ideological leaning? It is good to clearly understand these individuals or groups, and then it can determine how you report them.

“For instance, Boko Haram provided a lot of materials to make us know they could get violent, for instance when they said they were the Nigerian Taliban; we all know that the Taliban is a violent organisation in Afghanistan; and if they say they are Sunis, know the group of Sunis they belong to. It is good to know the organisation we are dealing with and not fight blindly,” he said.

Dr Abbah urged security agencies to partner and form a synergy with journalists in the common fight against terrorism.

According to him, security agencies need to be open with journalists, they need to put journalists in confidence and work hand in hand with them as partners in progress.

”Usually journalists are like the beautiful bride everyone wants to work with, so security agencies need to be able to agree on what to publish and what not to publish with journalists. Security agencies need to be ready to clarify issues with journalists, don’t harass or antagonise journalists; as long as you keep harassing journalists then they can’t open up to you. So I will call for collaboration, not confrontation between journalists and security agencies in the fight against terrorism,” he said.

For her part, Dorcas Bello, a participant from Viewer Television, said her take home is the knowledge on how to report for the benefit of the public and not be a reporter for the terrorist unknowingly.

No fewer than 18 reporters and editors participated in the workshop and were drawn from NAN, Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Voice of Nigeria (VON), Daily Trust, Leadership and Blueprint Newspapers among others.

(NAN)