By ‘Dotun Akintomide
The United Nations has urged journalists to scale up their reporting of human rights abuses in Nigeria so as to further expose and curb the various violations of human dignity and democratic process in the country while adhering to best global practices.
Ms. Adwoa Kufuor-Owusu, Senior Human Rights Adviser, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Information Center in Nigeria made the call as the world recently marked the 75th year of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) since the end of the second world war.
Kufuor-Owusu who spoke on the significance of UHDR key Articles and principles challenged journalists to ensure they have a proper understanding of the human rights they daily report on to enable the media to adequately spotlight abuses and shortfalls in the domestication and enforcement of various Articles of the UDHR in Nigeria’s local laws.
At a training organized in Lagos by the United Nations Information Center in collaboration with Human Rights Journalist Network Nigeria (HRJN), speakers and participants harped on the importance of understanding the 30 Articles detailed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as adopted by the UN in 1948, noting that it gives journalists the opportunity to cite best global practices and case studies while covering human rights issues.
Mr Lekan Otufodunrin, a media doyen and Executive Director of Media Development Network tasked journalists on ethical reporting. He stated that this will prevent journalists from violating the rights of citizens they are meant to uphold while reporting on them.
“It’s not every information you can share because the danger is that while you are trying to exercise your right, you can also violate other people’s rights. If you are not ethical there are so many things you will do wrong, including violating people’s rights. We need to do self-regulation before the government would come and regulate us,” Otufodunrin said, reminding journalists that, while citizens might rush to share every piece of information with the public, this is not always the case for any journalist worth his or her salt.
He listed ethical guidelines that could guide journalists to include editorial decisions, accuracy and fairness, respect for individual privacy, laws guiding how to expose anti-social conducts and the right to private life; privileged information/non-disclosure, public interest issues. Others include promoting human rights and social responsibility and curbing plagiarism in news reports.
Otufodunrin, a seasoned media trainer, who observed that it appears the media is currently playing a “slow catch-up with technology”, admonished journalists to pay attention to tech innovations and their applications which are constantly changing the global media landscape and news reporting.
