By Livinus Ayih
Media practitioners have been challenged to uphold the ethics guiding the profession to enable them remain relevant as the fourth estate of the realm.
Director General, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution Dr. Joseph Golwa threw the challenge during the first session of the on-going International Conference on Africa, Media and Peace Building held at the Multi-purpose Auditorium of the University of Jos.
The conference was organized by the Department of Mass Communication in collaboration with the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies of the institution.
Dr. Golwa who spoke on “Understanding Media in Conflict Reporting and Peace Building in Nigeria” stressed that Media workers should strive to be peace builders through fair, balanced, accurate and objective reportage of social contradictions and identity clashes.
He urged journalists to imbibe the attitude of reporting without bias irrespective of their faith as they represent the interest of every member of the society in which they practice.
Participants in their separate contributions opined that the media should be more responsible in the conduct of its activities to effectively mediate in conflict situation with some accusing the media for inflaming crisis through biased reportage.
They advocated the introduction of peace building modules into the curricula of secondary and tertiary institutions of learning to inculcate good values into the youth.
Chairman of the session, Professor Dung Pam Sha urged journalists wwto deploy total patriotism and professionalism in reporting casualty figures in conflict situation to avoid being actors in conflicts rather than peace builders.
He charged regulatory agencies to be decisive in checking the excesses of the media to curtail the series of uprisings fueled by the media.
