A panel of media experts, consisting practitioners and the academia, has taken a comprehensive review of baseline assessment report of how the media covered the 2015 general elections and proffered suggestions for improved coverage of the 2019 general elections.

The Baseline assessment, which covered both the print and online media shows among other observations that the issue of gender sensitivity received little or no attention as male politicians were given an undue advantage in the reportage above their female counterparts. It noted that news references to women were largely limited to the visual documentation of their presence at rallies as glamour objects and reports of victories of few female candidates.

The report also reveals that the 2015 general election reportage didn’t give space to the youth. In particular, the online medium selected for the purpose of monitoring for this coverage according to the report totally ignored news items relating to the youth.

The report equally revealed that persons with disabilities were not optimally represented in the coverage of the 2015 general elections. But, it noted that the plights of these segments of the society were scantily mentioned in the course of the reportage of the 2015 general election.

In all, four newspapers namely, The Punch, The Nation, Vanguard and Daily Trust and two online media namely, Premium Times and The Cable were used for the monitoring of election coverage

The report revealed that the medium used for the purpose of the survey did not give room for other political parties in the reportage, a situation viewed as unhealthy in the reportage of 2015 general elections, and admonished that future reportage elections in the country should avoid such pitfalls.

Welcoming participants to the Roundtable, Executive Director of International Press Centre (IPC), Mr. Lanre Arogundade said the import of the roundtable was to critique media report of the coverage of the 2015 general elections and proffer suggestion on how to leverage on the impact made by the coverage of the previous election to enable the media to do a proper reportage of the 2019 general elections. He said that the idea of the Roundtable discussion of the report highlighting how the media fared in the reportage of the 2015 was to proffer solution on how to do a broad based monitoring of the media coverage of the forthcoming 2019 general elections.

Presenting the report of the 2015 general election coverage by the media, Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin, Online Editor of The Nations Newspapers took the audience on a voyage of the number of newspapers and online media whose coverage of the 2015 coverage of the elections were monitored.

“To attain an enhanced professional reporting of the 2019 elections, International Press Centre, IPC under the European Union, EU SUPPORT TO DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA, EU-SDGN project initiated a Baseline Assessment of the print and online media’s reporting of 2015 electoral process. In part, the project is aimed at establishing previous trends in report8ing the electoral processes, identify the key gaps and recommend key resources required meet the capacity needs of the journalists in reporting the 2019 and future electoral process and elections. By so doing, it is expected that various stakeholders would correct the shortcomings of the recent past, effectively use the Freedom of Information Act as a tool to facilitate transparent elections, responsive democracy and enhanced service delivery”.

In her contribution, Professor Chinyere Okunna, a professor of Mass Communication at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University took a swipe at the activities of social media in the country, adding that users of social media have bastardised journalism practice in the country. According to her, the activities of social media has further tainted the credibility of traditional media adding that if the trend is not checked on time it is going to have a negative impact on journalism practice in the country.

She also gave useful insights on how to improve on writing of the report on the monitoring of the coverage of general elections in the country, commending the efforts of those who put together the report especially IPC that assembled the reports and monitored the coverage of the 2015 general elections by the media in the country. She lamented the non inclusion of a particular print medium, Daily Sun among those to be monitored in the coverage of the reportage of general elections because that the news paper that is the mouthpiece of the south east for now.

Mr. Bolaji Adebiyi, This Day Editor on Sunday in his paper present at the roundtable interrogated the report based on newsroom management and political analyst’s perspective and listed an avalanche of challenges militating against balanced reportage of electoral issues in print and online media in the country. According to him, the influence of media owners contribute largely to how electoral issues are reported by the media in the country, according to him “the influence of the media owners and commercialisation play a vital roles in the slanting or otherwise of the electoral issues reportage of various medium in the country”.

Adebiyi posited that to get accurate and unbiased reportage of electoral issues in the country, the influence of the media owners and the commercialisation should be looked into adding that there will not be perfect media coverage of electoral issues even now and in the future.

In his own contribution, another University Don at the event, Dr Tunde Akanni of Lagos State University commended the management of IPC for deepening democracy by offering effective monitoring of the media coverage of electoral issues and general elections in the country. Dr. Akanni advised that future roundtable on this subject matter should involve more scholars to give the discussion a scholarly bite that it deserves. He gave kudos to media practitioners in the country for the media coverage of electoral issues and general elections but insisted that it could be better.

Mr. Lanre Idowu, Executive Director Diamond Awards for Media
Excellence who chaired the Baseline Assessment Committee that compiled the report said that all the suggestions made by the participants in the course of interrogating the report are noted and would be diligently implemented to make the monitoring a robust one. He admitted the shortcomings of the report but promised that the shortcomings would be taken care of in future reports.

Participants at the roundtable were unanimous in advocating for the consideration of the persons living with disabilities in interrogating the electoral issues and reportage of the general elections by the media in the country.

Some of the participants at the Roundtable include Prof Stella Akunna of Nnamdi Azikiwe University,Dr. Tunde Akanni of Lagos State University,Dr. Osheaga Abang of University of Calabar, Mr. Nnmamdi Njamanze of Nigeria Press Council, Mr. Bolaji Adebiyi, Editor Thisday On Sunday, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman,Mr. Mojeed Musikilu of Premium Times, Mr. Lanre Idowu, Executive Director of DAME, Mr. Lekan Otufodurin of Nations Newspaper, Mr. Wale Adeoye of JODER, Jesuton Moses of NTA and Mrs Margaret Nwatok of The Guardian.