BY NONYELUM JULIET
Kaduna
As part of its activities in promoting peaceful co-existence in volatile areas, a non-governmental organization (NGO), Joint Initiative for Strategic Religious Action (JISRA) has trained journalists in Kaduna on conflict-sensitive reporting.
The country coordinator, JISRA, Jude Likita during a two-day training of journalists on ‘Role of Media In Interfaith Relations and Peace Building’ urged the media to promote religious tolerance in Kaduna State.
He said “Journalist’s in the country should speak out on Freedom of Religion and Belief (FoRB) and understand that freedom of religion or belief is everybody’s rights. It’s a human right that everyone has freedom to worship whatever or who he or she wants to worship and it shouldn’t be a thing of conflict in Nigeria”.
“We want media practitioners to be more sensitive in reporting things that has to do with FoRB and and also helps to step it down to other journalist so that they will learn from the experiences that we just shared”.
“JISRA program has recorded more success stories and it has helped a lot of communities and we want other people to learn as well, so bringing media actors together me to learn more appropriate and sensitive way of reporting conflict and also help in disseminate information and give more success of stories of JISRA”.
Earlier, the Advocacy Officer, JISRA, Reuben Emmanuel highlighted the objectives of the JISRA project which was to build trust, acceptance, foster dialogue, inclusive approach and acceptance of differences among various religious bodies.
According to him, the basis of the programme is JISRA’s conviction that FoRB and Interfaith dialogue are essential and integral to the realisation of peaceful and just societies.
“Religious actors, including women and youth can and need to play an important role in the process as change makers. JISRA believes their voices must be heard”.
He however, noted that the programme is currently being implemented in seven countries, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mali, Kenya, Uganda, Indonesia and Iraq.
One of the resource persons from Search for a Common Ground, Alfred Mangai who spoke on sensitive conflict tasked journalists to understand cultural sensitivity as well as respect the diverse beliefs and practices of the people when reporting conflict.
Mangai urged journalists to be conscious of languages they use while reporting conflict in order not to instigate more crisis.
He therefore urged Journalists to uphold the ethics of their profession to enable them discharge their duties effectively.
ENDS
