Arogundade Urges Journalists to Prioritise Their Safety During Election

Arogundade Urges Journalists to Prioritise Their Safety During Election

With a rise in the spate of electoral violence and attacks on journalists in Nigeria, the Executive Director of the International Press Centre, Nigeria’s leading Media Development and Press Freedom Organization, Mr. Lanre Arogundade has urged journalists and media professionals to prioritise their safety during the polls. Speaking on “Let’s talk Nigeria” show on Sparkling

With a rise in the spate of electoral violence and attacks on journalists in Nigeria, the Executive Director of the International Press Centre, Nigeria’s leading Media Development and Press Freedom Organization, Mr. Lanre Arogundade has urged journalists and media professionals to prioritise their safety during the polls.

Speaking on “Let’s talk Nigeria” show on Sparkling FM 92.3 FM Cross River on Tuesday, on the safety of Nigerian journalists during elections, Mr Arogundade bemoaned the endless attacks on journalists and media practitioners in Nigeria. He fingered the culture of impunity as the reason journalists are still being assaulted.

Explaining his frustration with the lack of justice for journalists in the country, he said that the lack of orientation and professional training for security agents have made them to see reporters as threats to them. He expatiated that security agents do not protect journalists during elections, rather they see them as objects of harassment.

According to him, most Nigerian Security Agents have molested journalists in the past, and since there is no justice for reporters, media practitioners have severally been victimised with no legal action taken.

He however urged the security agents to incorporate the media professionals into operational systems, particularly during the elections. He added that they must protect the journalists amidst them. He further appealed for the prosecution of attacks on journalists.

“We continue to have the attack mainly because we have a regime of impunity in place, in the sense that crimes against journalists are not investigated, and because they are not prosecuted the perpetrators are rarely subjected to prosecution and because there is no prosecution you do not have justice. So we have what we call impunity for crimes against journalists so it is a double jeopardy that journalists and other media professionals face in Nigeria. On the one hand, you have a series of crimes against them, the perpetrators are many.

“During election time, for example, journalists are attacked by security agencies deployed to cover elections even when they are accredited. We are talking of soldiers, we are talking of policemen, and the rest of them. Journalists are attacked by the political thugs. Sometimes, journalists come under the crossfire of warring factions of political camps and some party loyalists.

“So the perpetrators are many, and because the perpetrators are many it also translates to the fact that many journalists are becoming victims not to mention the instances of the kidnapping of journalists, in some cases unknown gunmen attacking the journalists so we have multiple layers of attacks, but I said the main reason why this continues to happen is that there is no mechanism to protect journalists and we also do not have diligent prosecution,” he said.

Speaking on how journalists can protect themselves during the elections, Mr Arogundade advised journalists to abide by the electoral laws, which is the guide for electoral process. He encouraged journalists to be familiar with the Electoral Act 2022, insisting that their familiarity with the act will save them from being assaulted by security personnel during the polls.

“Every Nigerian whether you are a journalist or not whoever you are, is bound by the provision of the electoral acts and in the case of the 2023 election ,we have the electoral acts 2022, and there are sections of that electoral acts that talk about the processes of conducting elections and what is allowed.

“For example, it is clearly stated in the electoral act 2022 that only INEC can declare the result of an election, that can pronounce somebody as the winner, the electronic transmission of result has made it easy for everybody to know a result, but the Electoral Act does not expect any journalists to proclaim anyone as winner of an election when INEC has not done so if you do that, you will be violating the electoral law and you can be prosecuted.

“When it also comes to the elections, you know the electoral acts also bars the use of electronic devices whilst voting,which means as a journalist you cannot go to the polling booth when somebody is thumb printing and use your mobile phone to record that, which will be violating the electoral acts.

“So my appeal to all journalists and other media professionals is to take time out read to the provision of electoral acts, so that you will not fall foul of the law, so that a policeman will not have an excuse to arrest you or to harass you because you are violating the provision of the law,” Mr Arogundade noted.

He further appealed to journalists who will be at the frontline in some parts of the country known for insecurity to insure themselves. He advised them to get insurance from their employers while going for their assignments.

More so, Mr Arogundade urged journalists and media practitioners to be mindful of their health status, indicating that it should be their priority to be healthy before embarking on high risk assignments. He added that journalists must be conversant and vigilant while covering the elections, because of violence which may erupt during the polls.

“For journalists who may likely be deployed to violence prone areas or areas with insecurity, we need to have a lot of information, invariably information is your best protection, in the sense that as a journalist you must be able to do some mapping. I will also think that journalists going to a place where you have a lot of insecurity should be free to get insurance cover from his or her employer.

“It is your right and you can also encourage your professional body to back you up. Beyond that, it is your role to be safety conscious, it is very important. You must decide whether it is advisable for you to go with your camera or the phone.

“Then your personal self is important, when you are going on an assignment, where you are going is an area where they have a lot of tension and there could be clashes, please do the basics like check your BP, check everything. If you are not healthy, let your employer know. Even the question of what you wear and how you dress matter,” he noted.

Mr Arogundade concluded by stating the importance of accreditation for media platforms that will be covering the elections, stating that accreditation is their best form of identifying themselves to the security agencies during the elections.

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