The International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos has urged journalists in Ondo State to strengthen news accuracy through fact checking, be accountable and make safety their watch word ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Orange FM’s Igbekele Ologun reports that these were the crux of discussions at two day workshop organised by IPC for members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ),Ondo State Council, editors and publishers on professional and democratic accountability in journalism ahead of the 2027 general elections, held in Akure, the state capital.
The two day workshop with the theme professional and democratic accountability in journalism organised by International Press centre was held under Component four (Support to Media) of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN III) Programme.
Speaking on behalf the IPC Executive Director, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, the organisation’s Programme Officer, Mrs. Stella Nwofia, said election reporting must go beyond political campaigns, rallies and candidates to examine the expectations, concerns and priorities of the citizens.
She noted that voters needed credible, balanced and inclusive information to make informed decisions, stressing that the media had a responsibility to scrutinise political promises and hold public officials and candidates accountable.
Also speaking, the Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ondo State Council, Prince Leke Adegbite described the engagement as timely, commending IPC for its sustained efforts to improve journalists’ professional capacity.
He expressed concern about the growing threat of disinformation ahead of the 2027 elections, warning that false reports circulated by unprofessional actors could mislead the public and create unnecessary tension.
While interacting with journalists in one of the sessions for the workshop, A senior journalist and Director of Corporate Communications at the Federal University of Technology, Akure Adegbenro Adebayo advocated precision journalism anchored on neutrality, fairness, balance, objectivity and newsroom discipline empathized the need for journalists to prioritise their safety first during election coverage.
He warned against planted stories and urged them to distinguish clearly between factual news reports, opinion pieces and editorials.
A digital Expert, Daniel Dabo, who spoke on leveraging technology for credible election coverage, examined the implications of artificial intelligence and digital journalism for news gathering and dissemination.
He cautioned against deepfakes, automated accounts, privacy breaches and the pressure to break news before competitors, reminding journalists that speed should never take precedence over accuracy.
In another session, Nigeria Democratic Report (NDR) Fact- Checker Olusola Oludiran explained the fact-checking process and examined the different forms of information disorder, including misinformation, disinformation and malinformation.
Participants who described the workshop as an eye opener were introduced to verification tools such as reverse image search, InVID, Hive Moderation and Google Lens to help establish the authenticity of photographs, videos and other digital materials before publication.
