Tessy Igomu
Media houses have been urged to act as agents for setting development agenda and highlight issues as well as ensure proper coverage of issues affecting Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) as their number continues to swell across the country.
This call was made by the founding President, Journalists For Christ (JFC), International Outreach, Nigeria, Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin, when he presented a report entitled: ‘Muffled Voices: Monitoring Media Reportage and Portrayal of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Africa’, to the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, The Sun Publishing Limited, Mr. Onuoha Ukeh, during a courtesy visit with his team.
Otufodunrin commended The Sun Newspaper for giving extensive media coverage to IDPs, noting that in the report, Daily Sun with 55 stories had more unit reportage on IDPs, which was far more than that of other newspapers in the country.
He said the 36-page report published by JFC Nigeria with support from World Association For Christian Communication (WACC) and Waldensian Church’s Otto Per Mile (OPM) is a compendium of findings made from a two-month survey of media reports in six national dailies and two online platforms in Nigeria.
He explained it documented how 70 per cent of stories surveyed within the period under review were news based, giving credence to only the activities of government officials, institutions and donor agencies.
The trend, he lamented, will continue to lead to the dearth of action-driven reports coming out of IDP camps if not quickly and properly addressed.