As insurgency surges across the country, journalists have been described as reliable partners in tackling the menace through timely and adequate reportage.
This was contained in a communique issued at the end of a 3-day workshop on enhancing journalist-military cooperation in checking insecurity, recently in Abuja.
The event was organized by Zakclair Investment Limited.
The outcome of the deliberation which was signed by the Secretary of the Communique Drafting Committee, Dunia Amos, read: “The Nigerian journalist, needs to, at all times, exercise a high sense of responsibility and patriotism in the reportage of conflict and operational activities of the military.
“The Nigerian military should cooperate and provide necessary information to journalists in matters of national interest, without prejudice to force protection, operational security, and national security.
“The military should see journalists as partners in the fight against insurgency and terrorism in the country and endeavor to accord them the requisite respect.
“Given the spontaneous and pervading nature of news and daily occurrence of happenings in our global village, the military should be proactive and not reactive in giving out timely information to assist journalists to disseminate accurate and balanced reportage of crisis in Nigeria.
“Journalists should cover issues of insurgency and terrorism as matters of national interest and frame their stories in ways that will assist the efforts to curb the menace.
“Journalists should not be afraid to be embedded with the military in their operations in order to get first-hand reports of the situation.
“Journalists should also recognize that embedding with the military comes with heavy responsibility for military personnel and as such, must respect rules and instructions given while on the assignment.
“Journalists should be courageous to engage in investigative journalism. It is quite unfortunate that this genre of journalism is fast disappearing in the country.
“Standard operational procedures should be developed for journalists in reporting operational activities of the Nigerian military.
“The military establishment should create avenues for frequent interaction with journalists.
“Continuous training of military personnel in the art of strategic communication is needed.
“Adequate attention needs to be paid to social media and timely intervention should be made to counteract fake news regarding terrorism and insurgency in the country.
“The military and journalists should dominate the media space with convincing narratives about the ongoing war against terrorists and criminal elements threatening the peace and tranquility of the good people of Nigeria.”
From Okwe Obi, Abuja
