In a bid to enhance its responsibility of protecting the rights of citizens, including journalists, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has said it will continue to engage with stakeholders to ensure that human rights are adequately protected at all times.
The Executive Secretary of NHRC, Tony Ojukwu (SAN) made this known on Monday at a capacity building training tagged “Defending the Rights of Journalists and Media Practitioners through National Safety Mechanism” for the staff of corporate affairs, external linkages and journalists held in Abuja.
Ojukwu bemoaned that despite relevant constitutional guarantees and legislations, there are situations in the country where freedom of expression and the press, as well as journalists’ safety are violated and trampled upon for no just cause.
Consequently, he said capacity building training is crucial because journalists who are the agents of change and promoters of good governance should be exposed to capacity building training to enable them to understand safety Mechanism, which they need to survive in any situation and pragmatically discharge their duties effectively.
He said “unfortunately, cases abound where some Nigerian journalists have lost their lives in the line of duty, owing to alleged excesses of some unscrupulous state actors and in some other cases, non-state actors, who may be pursuing some selfish interest”.
He noted that the Commission has enjoyed a robust partnership with the media houses, saying “this has assisted us in keeping the public abreast with our programmes and activities”.
Ojukwu, described the training as a give back, a corporate social responsibility on the part of the Commission to the journalists.
In a good will message, Deputy Resident Representative to Nigeria, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Marijia Peran, said journalist are agents of change.
Similarly, Vivian Amadi of Socio Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) noted that NHRC can always rely on SERAP for collaboration.
But in the view of Executive Secretary, Nigeria Press Council, Francis Nwosu, Nigeria Press Council will work out collaborative effort to enhance capacity building for journalists.
He stressed that there is no end to learning, however harped on ethics of journalism.
Meanwhile, Dr. Umar Jibrin Gwandu, one of the resource persons, presented a paper titled: ‘Protection of Human Rights by the Public and Private media’, while Ms Joy Baiye spoke on ‘Using the Social media to promote human rights’.
However, Mr. Ajibola Hamzat, in separate papers spoke on ‘The new media and limits of freedom of expression’ and ‘Conflict Reporting and hazards of Journalism’.
