DRC achieves 10% COVID-19 coverage milestone - ITREALMS

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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has crossed the 10 per cent primary series COVID-19 vaccine coverage milestone, a significant achievement in a populous country where coverage one year ago stood at below 1%, and where the health system is handling multiple priorities including Ebola, cholera and measles.

In January 2022, DRC was one of the 34 COVAX AMC-supported countries whose coverage stood below 10%. Today, with concerted support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF and WHO through the COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership, only 6 countries remain below 10% - with Cameroon, Mali and Gabon amongst the latest to cross this milestone.

LASHMA harps on HIS in achieving universal healthcare coverage - ITREALMS

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The Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA), has advocated for importance of  residents to enroll in Healthcare Insurance Scheme (HIS), reports ITREALMS.

This, they said, would help to achieve universal healthcare coverage and reduce

out of pocket payments.

Revealed! With 49.7% internet coverage, Nigeria lacks capacity for eTransmission of election results - ITREALMS

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The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed that estimated 49.7 per cent of the national spread lacks internet coverage which will be required for real-time electronic transmission of electoral results, reports ITREALMS.

NCC officials made this disclosure while at the House of Representatives’ Public Hearing over Electronic Transmission of Election Results in the country.

Experts advocate improved media coverage of digital rights - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

Digital Rights experts have called on media practitioners across Africa to focus media attention on digital rights violations on the continent, reports ITREALMS.

They made this call while speaking at the induction ceremony for the 2018 Digital Rights and Inclusion Fellows in Lagos at the headquarters of Paradigm Initiative.

The Communications Officer, Paradigm Initiative, Sodiq Alabi, noted that undoubtedly, there has been an increase in media coverage of digital rights, both in the legacy media and in the new media.

“But there is still room for significant improvement in terms of quality of content and the depth of the reporting. It would be great if major media houses can assign journalists exclusively to digital rights and inclusion issues so that we could have an improvement both in quantity of reports and the quality,” he said.

In his address, the Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative, ‘Gbenga Sesan reiterated the need for media houses to focus more attention on the issues affecting digital rights, stressing that these include the absence of data privacy laws, persecution of bloggers and online journalists, mass surveillance, internet shutdown and the new taxes on over-the-top services like social media.

Paradigm Initiative is a social enterprise dedicated to deepening digital rights and inclusion in Africa. The group created the media fellowship to strengthen the capacity of African journalists interested in covering digital rights and inclusion.

ITREALMS recalls that the pioneer fellows are Victor Ekwealor, a Nigerian and the editor of TechPoint, and Emmanuel Agbenonwossi, the Togolese editor of AfroTribune.

Nenye Dom/GEE

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GOCOP supports Nigeria's new Media Code for Election Coverage - ITREALMS Online

ITREALMS:

The Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) has expressed optimism that the newly launched Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage (Revised Edition 2018) will to a large extent guide operators and separate trained journalists from those who suddenly  found themselves reporting simply because they have access to a laptop or phone and data, reports ITRealms.

Dotun Oladipo, President of GOCOP, made this declaration on Friday at the public launch and presentation of the Code during the ongoing International Press Institute Congress holding at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.

Oladipo said: “The Guild of Corporate Online Publishers is elated at this recent development in the Nigerian media space with the launch today of the Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage.

“We have been a part of this as individual publications and as an association since the journey to review the Code began. We are proud to associate with this effort spearheaded by the International Press Centre, headed by our own Lanre Arogundade, and those who have supported the effort through funding and capacity building.

“For us, the Code represents what we believe in as an association, especially as it relates to election coverage.

“In coming together, the idea behind the formation of GOCOP was to serve as a peer review gathering of Online Publishers who have worked in the print for several years, with some of us rising to become Managing Directors/Editors-in-Chief, Title Editors and a minimum of Line Editors. Most of us also belong to the prestigious Editors’ Club in Nigeria, the Nigeria Guild of Editors.”

Oladipo said further that GOCOP is concerned with the upholding of journalism ethics, especially online, where, according to him, “ethics has been thrown away,” adding: “We pledge our support to this cause as we go on this journey to entrench the code.”

Speaking, the Director of International Press Centre, Lanre Arogundade, said the public launch and presentation of the Code “represents a strong statement that good election reporting matters to journalists and media institutions in Nigeria”.

Arogundade disclosed that the Code has been endorsed by six umbrella media professional groups: Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN);  Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON); Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE); Nigeria Union of Hours (NUJ); GOCOP; RATTAWU; 75 broadcast, print and online media; 15 media support groups; and two journalism training institutions - Nigeria Institute of Journalism and International Institute of Journalism.

Arogundade, therefore, enjoined all journalists and media organisations in Nigeria “to strive to read, digest, understand and implement the provisions of this Code”.

According to him, the ultimate goal is that through the credible reporting of the 2019 elections and the electoral processes before and after it, “we can all contribute to credible, free and fair and peaceful elections in the country”.

Arogundade thanked the European  Union for supporting the production and dissemination of the Code.

In his presentation, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said from their statistics, youths and women would play greater roles in the 2019 elections.

However, Yakubu assured that strategic plan has been put in place to ensure hitch free elections, noting that part of the plan was the release of election timetable in January  2018, a year ahead of the general elections billed for February  2019.

Yakubu reiterated that there will be no electronic voting in 2019, saying: “I want to assure you that the will of election voters will continue to prevail.”

He said no fewer than 85 media organisations have so far been accredited by INEC, adding that the 2019 elections will be the most widely covered in the history of election in Nigeria.

Speaking, EU Deputy Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Richard Young, assured that the EU would continue to support process that is fair and transparent, saying it is important that the code of conduct has been put in place.

Young commended all the media organisations that partnered with International Press Centre to come up with the revised edition of the Code, noting that it would contribute to free, fair and transparent elections in 2019.

Present at the occasion were the creme de la creme of Nigerian media and their counterparts from across the world attending the IPI conference.

They included the owner of Channels Television, John Momoh; and the Chairman of NPAN and Publisher of THISDAY Newspaper, Nduka Obaigbena.

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GOCOP, 79 others endorse Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage for 2019 - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) alongside 79 other media entities and publications have endorsed the revised edition of the 2018 Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage in in preparation and commitment to professional and ethical coverage of the 2019 elections, reports ITRealms.

GOCOP prides itself as currently a professional group of some 55 online publishers in worldwide.

This underlines a common chord in the industry for self regulation and checking of excesses among professional media practitioners, just as the Code will be launched in Abuja, Nigeria on Friday, June 22, 2018 as part of the activities of the World Congress of the International Press Institute.

Director, International Press Centre, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, disclosed that about 80 media outfits have so far endorsed the Code, including professional groups and associations, the broadcast media, newspapers, online news mediums and support groups. 

The Code, a revised edition of the 2014/2015 Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage, was recently validated by media stakeholders.

Arogundade said the Code have been okayed by the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria, Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Nigerian Guild of Editors, Radio Television And Theatre Arts Workers Union and the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers.

He said it was encouraging that prominent media establishments that have so far endorsed the Code include Channels Television, AIT, RAYPOWER Radio, the News Agency of Nigeria and the following newspapers: Vanguard, ThisDay, Daily Trust, The Guardian, The Sun, Leadership, The Nation,  Premium Times, The Cable, The Eagle Online, Business Eye magazine and The News Magazine.

Arogundade also said it was gratifying that fifty-five members of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, who publish online, have endorsed the Code as well as the Nigerian Institute of Journalism and the Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria.

Media support groups promoting media development, independence and professionalism that have endorsed the Code have also been impressive. 

They include: the Nigerian Association of Women Journalists, Media Rights Agenda, Institute for Media and Society, Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalists, Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalists, Centre for Information Technology and Development, Journalists for Democratic Rights, Network for Media Excellence, Journalism Clinic, Media Career Development Centre, Diamond Media Awards for Excellence, the Journalism Clinic and Media Law Centre.

Arogundade expressed the hope that the number of organisations endorsing the Code would increase before the public launch and presentation next week.

“We are particularly elated at the kind of responses we are getting from many media organisations that have either endorsed or expressed interest in endorsing the Code,” he said.

Essentially, the Code provides guidelines for the ethical conduct of journalists and their respective organisations in the coverage of elections. 

This obligation, according to the Code, “entails the performance of oversight, public education, open forum and conflict management roles by the media during elections”.

The Code also says in its preamble that the “effective performance of these important roles requires the observance of the highest standards of professionalism, maximum compliance with regulatory frameworks and deference to the public good and interest”.

It therefore says that “it is desirable to have a set of guidelines that regulates the professional and ethical conduct of the media and journalists during elections” and enjoins practitioners that “compliance with the guidelines will contribute to the conduct of credible elections and corresponding social order”.

Among others, the Code provides for a section to regulate Hate Speech and other forms of incitement, which according to it, “could lead to violence and threaten the democratic fabric of a society”. 

It added: “The social obligations of the media during elections therefore include the prevention of hate speech.”

Arogundade stated that the revision, publication and dissemination of the Code is one of the activities being undertaken by IPC under Component 4b: Support to the media of the EU Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria project, which seeks to build a professional media as catalysts of democratic accountability, credible elections and good governance. 

Twenty thousand copies of the updated code shall be produced and disseminated to journalists for use ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Ayo Midele/GEE

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Benue herdsmen attack: FG urges restraint in media coverage

ITREALMS:

The Federal Government (FG) has requested media and public commentators’ restraint in coverage and comments on the fallouts of what it described as recent farmers and herders clash in Benue State, so as not to inflame the situation, reports ITRealms.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made this call at the weekend, told ITRealms in a press statement that Federal Government is working hard to address the situation with a view to preventing a recurrence, not just in Benue State, but nationwide.

“It’s incumbent on the media and public commentators not to engage in actions that can aggravate the crisis,” he said.

Mohammed explained that for avoidance of doubt and fear of being misunderstood that “we are neither saying the media should not cover the crisis nor asking public commentators to desist from commenting on it. All we are saying is that both must be circumspect.”

He pointed out that the current poisoned atmosphere of “incendiary comments, unrestrained use of pictures and footages that offend human sensibilities as well as fingerpointing can only exacerbate the situation and complicate ongoing efforts to end the crisis.”

Further, Mohammed said the Federal Government is absolutely saddened by the loss of lives and the destruction of property resulting from the crisis, and recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari, in commiserating with the Benue Governor, unreservedly condemned the killings and also assured of the necessary security measures to prevent further attacks and bring the perpetrators to book.

He insisted that FG has mapped out short and long-term solutions to the incessant clashes between farmers and herders, including a planned conference of stakeholders, and assured of the government's strong determination to find a lasting solution to the farmers/herders' clashes.

Ayo Midele/GEE

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