The International Press Centre (IPC) will tomorrow host a stakeholders roundtable ahead of the general elections on February 25 to deliver findings from its continuing media monitoring for inclusive participation.
The organization's Executive Director, Lanre Arogundade, stated in a statement yesterday that the exercise was crucial to establishing whether or not the polls could be deemed thorough.
He stated that the event would include presentations of the updated Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage as well as talks on the results of the monitoring in October and November 2022.
The convergence, which Arogundade said would attract stakeholders from the media, civil society, academia, regulatory bodies and other relevant organisations, “will present the opportunity for the media monitoring report to be assessed.”
Certain that the exercise would assist in “strengthening the media for fair, accurate, ethical and inclusive coverage of the electoral processes and elections in Nigeria,” the media monitoring, as disclosed by him, “is one of the activities being implemented by IPC under a European Union (EU)-funded project.”
He submitted that IPC “will also present a performance scorecard by the monitored media based on their promotion of inclusive issues in their coverage and reportage of the electoral processes and elections, particularly in line with stipulations of the Media Code of Election Coverage.”
The newspapers to be monitored are The Guardian, The Punch, Daily Sun, Vanguard, ThisDay, Nigerian Tribune, The Nation, Leadership, Daily Trust and Daily Independent. Online media included in the exercise are The Cable, Premium Times, Eagle Online, RealNews and The Authority.
Also on the list are the “news portal (website) and Twitter handles of Nigeria’s election management body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).”
Optimistic that the project would be successful, Arogundade added: “Overall goal of the media component under EUSDGN II, which IPC is the lead partner, is to support the consolidation of democracy in Nigeria with the media helping to facilitate the key ingredient of credible elections through engagement and professionalism in coverage and reportage of the electoral processes.”