By Moses Emorinken, Abuja
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Society of Media in Public Health (ISMPH) have tasked media practitioners on the urgent and consist need to report authentic, well-researched and realistic stories that are capable of changing behaviours, especially during the covid-19 pandemic.
They noted that asides the covid-19 pandemic, the country and the world over grappled and is still grappling with fake news and misinformation which are capable of undermining the gains made in the fight against the pandemic.
Speaking during the media conference organised by the Association of Nigeria Health Journalists (ANHEJ) in Abuja on Friday, the Chief Executive Officer of the International Society of Media in Public Health (ISMPH), Moji Makanjuola, stated, “The media, whether we like it or not, owe the human race the duty of disseminating information in a realistic, positive change effecting, and ameliorating manner.
“Without evoking panic and fear, we can give a picture of reality and how to mitigate the imminent disasters. We can improve dispositions, douse fear, anger, and anxiety and replace them with positive action when we act right.
“Authoritatively, we should have taken over our professional domain. We should have searched, researched to give out genuine, authentic, credible and authoritative news all of the time. We should have been backed by evidence and data for believability. We have the pen, the knowhow and the authority to do so. That after all is what we are paid to do.
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“We should along with our mainline role taken over the social media. We are influencers in our own rights. We should have had active social media pages where our followers and likers listened to what we had to give and it would have been respected and venerated.
“We build that profile over the years of practices on our respective platforms. We are the health Journalists and own that turn. Practicing media these modern times demands elements of aggressiveness and proactivity.
“We should have a new mind-set – a determination to rid our nation of covid-19, – the media way. Track it, its impact, its mitigation, what works, what does not work with it.”
The Country Representative of WHO in Nigeria, Dr. Walter Kazadi Mulombo, in his address recognised the critical role of the media in shaping the health narratives towards the country’s achievement of Universal Health Coverage and other issues.
Represented by Media and Communication Expert, WHO, Charity Warigon, he said: “Nigeria is not doing badly in health reporting. For covid-19, Nigerian journalists have done very well, but there is still enough room for more to be done. WHO will continue to improve on collaborations with the media.”
The President of ANHEJ, Hassan Zaggi, added: “It is pertinent to state that aside medical experts, journalists were those who had firsthand contact with victims of covid-19. By our own assessment, we did our very best within the circumstance we found ourselves by working with medical and health experts, health-related government institutions and critical stakeholders in the health sector to ensure that our people are well-informed about the coronavirus. We are still in the business of doing so, even as the good news of vaccine invention livens up the world.”
