The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) National Office is training 20 Community Radio content producers and 20 investigative journalists on professionalism, ethics of reportage on irregular migration.
Mr Macaulay Olushola, National Professional Officer, Communications and Information Sector said this on Tuesday in a statement issued in Abuja.
Olushola said that the project ‘Empowering Young People in Africa through Media and Communication’, is a three-year programme supported by Italian Agency for Development and Cooperation.
He recalled that the official launch of the project was in May and expected to elapse May 2022 with reflection on relevant global and regional trends of migration related issues.
Olushola said that the increasing number of irregular migration concern of citizens from Senegal, Guinea-Conakry, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, Ghana and Mali necessitated its awareness creation.
According to the communications officer, the capacity building workshop will hold on Aug. 28 to 30 in Minna, Niger state and to be replicated in Lagos State Sept. 5 to Sept. 6.
“`The workshop will equip media professionals with the ability to produce better informed reports that seeks to inform rather than inflame public discussion of the issue.
“It will encourage journalists to deal ethically with vulnerable communities and refugees crises, as well as consider the social impact of their storytelling and news production.
“Long-term efforts are needed to promote the social and economic development of Africa as well as the efforts to manage and control borders and mass illegal migratory flows.
“This is also important to eradicate trafficking of human beings in order to put an end to the tragedies that are multiplying in the Sahel and the Mediterranean,” he said.
According to Olushola, since the 1990s, a continuous but irregular flow is trying to reach the European coasts at the risk of their lives.
He said that apart from Southern Africa, no African region is spared from the irregular migration phenomenon, especially in West Africa. (NAN)
