{"id":396991,"date":"2018-02-01T06:00:53","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T06:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=396991"},"modified":"2018-02-01T06:57:48","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T06:57:48","slug":"media-cso-partnerhsip-good-governance-perspective-nigeria-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=396991","title":{"rendered":"Media – CSO partnerhsip for good governance; my perspective from Nigeria [Article]"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a great time in Lagos, Nigeria last week participating in a roundtable meeting between journalists and CSOs on ensuring good governance and accountability through research\/data-driven and investigative reporting.<\/p>\n

The Right to Information remains an essential tool for journalists and citizens to ensuring accountability in governance, however, for various reasons it is not given the due recognition and impetus.<\/p>\n

\"Jonas<\/p>\n

In Ghana the bill is over 17 years old, going in and out of parliament despite a supposed commitment by successive governments. In Nigeria, it took 11 years to have it passed into law, but enforcement is a major challenge, especially because the media seem highly polarized and the work of journalists is somewhat undermined by the high commercialization of news and direct influences of owners.<\/p>\n

Despite the shortcoming; ie. The non-existence of a Right to Information law, the media in Ghana is playing an active role in ensuring good governance; independently, and through collaboration with credible CSOs, although more can still be done.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Jonas
The two Ghanaian participants \u2013 Jonas Nyabor, Citi FM (L) and Eric Saforo, Youth Empowerment Synergy (R)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Among the recent achievements in this regard are the suspension of the mandatory tow levy, suspension of the DVLA first aid kit charges, decisive action against illegal small-scale mining and closure of an illegally operating Chinese-owned tomato factory.<\/p>\n

Media Houses such as Citi FM<\/strong><\/a> continue to champion this effort, going beyond the archaic perceived role of the media only being disseminators of information to being advocates and campaigners for justice, good governance, and accountability.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Jonas
Jonas Nyabor, Eric Saforo, and some Nigeria participants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Again, not just on air or online, but on the ground; this is the way forward \u2013 progressive 21st-century media.<\/p>\n

Within CSOs can be found expertise, network, credibility, and independence while media organizations are a wealth of credibility, fearlessness, wide coverage, creativity in story-telling and influence, which can be merged galvanized to for good governance and accountability especially in Africa.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"Jonas<\/p>\n

Jonas Nyabor, Eric Saforo, and some Nigeria participants<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What must be done:<\/strong><\/p>\n

CSOs must endeavour to involve journalists in the planning and execution of programs and campaigns to ensure that the accurate, newsy and relevant perspectives are highlighted.<\/p>\n

CSOs must deliberately build partnerships with media organizations to promote their collective interests<\/p>\n

Regular CSO-Media interactions must be held to plan and execute development campaigns.<\/p>\n

Media practitioners must build their capacities to understand the context and content of the work of CSOs.<\/p>\n

\"Jonas<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About the Roundtable meeting<\/strong><\/p>\n

The event was organized by the International Center for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) Abuja-Nigeria with the aim of discussing ways of forging a partnership between CSOs and the media to ensure accountability and good governance.<\/p>\n

\"Jonas<\/p>\n

Representing CSOs in Ghana at the event Youth Empowerment Synergy (YES-Ghana); a youth-focused independent organization working towards the promotion of a sustainable and productive future for young people in Ghana.<\/p>\n

The roundtable meeting was funded by the Ford Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

By: Jonas Nyabor<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(Journalist with Accra-based Citi FM)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a great time in Lagos, Nigeria last week participating in a roundtable meeting between journalists and CSOs on ensuring good governance and accountability through research\/data-driven and investigative reporting. The Right to Information remains an essential tool for journalists and citizens to ensuring accountability in governance, however, for various reasons it is not given […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":396995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[374],"tags":[16677,16676,2706,2247,10890],"class_list":["post-396991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-icir","tag-international-center-for-investigative-reporting","tag-jonas-nyabor","tag-yes-ghana","tag-youth-empowerment-synergy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=396991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/396995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=396991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=396991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=396991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}