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On Wednesday, April 19, 2006, Social and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC) united with the Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ) (Lagos Chapter) to convene a one-day workshop in Lagos on The Media and the Advancement of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Nigeria. The workshop aimed to: (1) critically examine the role of the media in the realization of economic, social and cultural rights in Nigeria; (2) encourage professionalism and specialized reporting on these rights; (3) explore various options for deepening collaborations between the media and human rights and advocacy organizations; and (4) expand lines of communication between the media and members of local communities, women’s groups and other vulnerable groups who are often disproportionately affected by human rights abuses.
Over eighty participants drawn from online and print media houses, broadcasting outfits, civil society organizations, women’s organizations, think tanks, the bar and the bench, and poor and marginalized groups and communities who actively engaged in discussions. The workshop followed three sub-themes: (1) Addressing the Challenges to Media Effectiveness in Nigeria [featuring presentations on “The Place of Beat Reporting in Media Practice”, “Between Business Good and Social Good: In Search of a Healthy Balance”, and “Towards Effective Media Advocacy”], (2) Using Rights as a Framework for In-Depth Media Analysis and Reporting [highlighting addresses on “Clarifying Nigeria’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Obligations”, “Challenges Militating Against Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Reporting in Nigeria”, and “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Poverty: Building Public Consciousness”], and (3) Mainstreaming Marginalized Perspectives into Media Reporting [“Niger Delta: From the Margins to the Center”, “Overcoming Bias: Expanding the Media’s Focus on Women’s Rights Issues”, “Voices from Slum and Evicted Communities”].
Each session was followed by a plenary session that provided ample opportunity for interaction and discussion among the resource persons and participants. The plenary session specifically offered the unusually large mixture of senior, middle and junior-level media practitioners the opportunity to engage in frank and provocative discussion about human rights, poverty, democracy and their industry’s role in giving voice to the poor and marginalized sections of the population.
The workshop was organized under SERAC’s Project to Promote Economic, Social and Cultural Rights through Media Sensitization as supported by the World Council for Christian Communication (WACC), in close collaboration with the Ford Foundation. It has two main objectives: (1) to provide training aimed at increasing the awareness and capacity of journalists to report and analyze issues relating to economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights in Nigeria; and (2) to enhance media sensitivity to violations of these rights through dialogue with vulnerable and marginalized groups and local communities. In addition, the project seeks to promote dialogue between the media and government officials through sustained, in-depth media investigations and critical analyses of issues of poverty and widespread denials of ESC rights.
During the workshop, the NUJ’s (Lagos Chapter) chairman, Mr. Wahab Oba, appealed to SERAC to organize more media trainings in order to consolidate the gains made by the event. He also urged SERAC to expand its programs to NUJ chapters in other states throughout the country. As a follow up to the project, SERAC is exploring the prospects of developing a training module on media advocacy on ESC rights.
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