By Ayodele Abere
Ahead of the June 20 governorship election, the International Press Centre, in collaboration with the Centre for Media and Society, has trained journalists in Ekiti State on election observation, media safety, digital rights protection, and responsible reporting.
The training, held in Ado-Ekiti under the European Union-Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria II programme and funded by the European Union, was organized to prepare journalist-observers for effective coverage and monitoring of the electoral process across the state.
Speaking at the session, IPC Executive Director Lanre Arogundade said the programme was designed to strengthen the capacity of journalists to provide credible, timely, and comprehensive reports on the conduct of the election.
Arogundade said reports from journalists deployed across the state would form part of a broader assessment framework to evaluate the conduct of the poll. He explained that IPC would issue a preliminary report on election day, followed by a more detailed assessment after the exercise.
He noted that the deployment strategy would ensure wide coverage across local government areas, stressing that the media remained critical to ensuring transparency and accountability during elections.
The training also addressed the physical safety of journalists and the growing challenges associated with digital journalism and online reporting.
“Without the media reporting the processes freely and without hindrance, we will not be able to get real-time information on how the election is going,” Arogundade said.
He added that the organization would deploy observers to cover a significant portion of the state’s local government areas and use standardized tools to collect data for the assessment.
