Farooq Kperogi, media scholar and newspaper columnist and Umaru Pate, Professor of media history, among other resource persons led training sessions on journalism practice and journalists’ safety at the WikkiTimes’ capacity building for 30 North East journalists held recently with the aim to sanitise the country’s political landscape.
During his session, Kperogi harped on how journalists can investigate politically exposed individuals using multisource techniques with a structural use of facts and figures. Citing the U.S Watergate scandal, Kperogi explained that investigative journalists require diligence and must be selective in consulting sources with at least four sources for specific information.
On his part, Umaru Pate discussed the safety and security of investigative journalists. He advised the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) to find other means of funding its activities and not rely on the government they are to hold accountable.
Peter Nkanga, an investigative journalist who was a West Africa representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), spoke on ‘Cyberstalking, safety and security of journalists’. He recounted the attendant death threats and trauma after his anti-human rights BBC documentary featuring Ahmed Isah, the host of Brekete Family programme on Human Rights Radio in Abuja.
WikkiTimes organised the two-day training with support from the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) and the MacArthur Foundation.
