IPC urges Media to give equal coverage to all parties, women politicians

The International Press  Centre, IPC, has advised media organizations to give equitable coverage of electoral process of political parties and candidates in the run up, during the elections and after the polls.

The IPC gave the advice in Lagos during the public presentation of the 2nd quarterly report and media Stakeholders’ Roundtable on the coverage of the 2019 Electoral Process.

IPC observed that the lapses in the trends of reportage of the 2019 Electoral process during its monitoring of 12 print and online newspapers is an indices that the media need to do more especially as Nigeria goes to the polls on Saturday.

Illustrating to newsmen findings of a research carried out by the centre on election coverage, the Executive Director,  Mr Lanre Arogundade, submitted that the monitored media outlets and others, which were not captured in the study, should strive to abide by the provisions of the Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage and some other relevant frameworks including the Electoral Act in their discharge of duty.

He urged media professionals to give equitable access to parties, candidates and underrepresented groups.

He charged the gathering to be socially responsible,  ethical and avoid hate speech as well as be conflict sensitive.

He also tasked the monitored media outlets and others to be more gender sensitive in the choice of language when reporting women candidates or their issues.

According to him, the public presentation of the 2nd quarterly report and media Stakeholders’ Roundtable on the coverage of the 2019 Electoral Process is a project of IPC with the support of the  European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria, EU-SDGN, Project, in order to strengthen the media to provide fair, accurate and ethical coverage of the electoral process in Nigeria.

Also speaking, Executive Director, Centre for Free Speech, Richard Akinnola, while reviewing the report, said media organizations could do better in their responsibilities by ensuring that they give equal coverage to all parties and candidates.

Akinnola said further that media concentration of prominent parties could be detrimental if the tide is not changed.

He added that the media should engage female politicians on issues that are germane to national development to forestall gender imbalance.

Meanwhile some stakeholders expressed concerns regarding the discharge of their duties and possible solutions were highlighted to address issues facing the media with a view to perform their watchdog role as provided for in Section 22 of the 1999 constitution.