Dev’t Organisation Underscores Need For Media Credibility, Trust Building

By Patricia Amogu

Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI ) for reporters without borders has emphasised the need to build trust and set credibility standards for better media empowerment .

African Director/Regional Manager of the initiative, Marc Abuflan, underscored the need at a workshop on certification tools for newsrooms across Africa, organised in Abuja to build the capacity of journalists in selected newsrooms across television, radio, online, and print media outfits.

According to Abuflan, newsrooms struggle a lot to show their credibility and the quality of work they do everyday, especially with the influence of social media globally.

“In Africa today, journalistic content is in direct competition on platforms with any other type of content.

“It is important to find structural solutions to give journalism the needed structure to compete favourably.

“There is a need to bring identifiable credibility to the media, and the JTI certification will give not just credibility but integrity and build trust for better revenue generation for media outfits in Africa.

“It is about giving back to Journalism its competitive advantage in the global space.

“We developed this tool for self assessment, transparency checks in order to show how the media houses work, how they are structured and help them earn certification from approved accreditation bodies before certification.

“We want the media to be certified in line with best practices, good standards, and good journalism,” he added.

The regional manager said the process would consequently help them generate revenue from advertisements, increase their search engines optimisation while easily giving credibility approval for grants from recognised donor bodies.

“We are here to drive the course of the best newsrooms. We came to have a discussion, access and proffer market-driven solutions to newsrooms across Africa.

“(At least) 1500 media outfits such as media development organisations, advertisement outlets, media affiliates, and regulatory bodies have joined this global network.

“The first and second stages are free, but the certification which has a cost has been provided as grant for the purpose of the certification to interested media outfits during this workshop.

Kazeem Biriowo, Senior Correspondent, Tribune Newspaper, a participant said part of the take away from the workshop is how journalism can have best practices.

Biriowo said that media organisations and journalists can actually do their jobs with self-respect and motivation to eradicate brown envelope syndromes plaguing media spaces.

He added that this will go a long way in giving journalism and journalists the much needed credibility that must be intentional.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Journalism Trust Initiative, a tool to promote the trustworthiness of information and fight disinformation is coming to Nigeria for the first time today. (NAN)

Edited by Emmanuel Yashim