Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila has said there is need for capacity building of journalists covering the legislative activities of the National Assembly for accurate reportage.
He stated this in his remarks on Monday while declaring open a two-day capacity building workshop which was organised by the Office of the Clerk to the National Assembly in collaboration with Yiaga Africa’s Centre for Legislative Engagement in Abuja.
The Speaker said the NASS considered journalists as critical part of the legislature, given that they daily report legislators through which citizens come to know what happens, insisting that journalists continue to be trained and retrained.
He said: “If you observe, you would notice that journalists come first on the list of participants for this workshop. That explains how important journalists are to the National Assembly and the entrenchment of democracy in our country.
“One may wonder why we need to build the capacity of journalists so often that within a space of two weeks, two different workshops have been organised for the journalists covering our activities at the Federal Legislature.
“The answer is simple: we need to do this, again and again, to strengthen the capacity of our professionals to do their noble job while guarding against misinformation and misrepresentation in their reportage.
“When we attend programmes such as this, we get reminded of our responsibilities and how we should go about carrying them out as professionals.”
He bemoaned the height of fake news and sensationalism that has put the lawmakers and the institution in bad light.
“With the way sensationalism, fake news and misinformation travel in this age of social media, I believe there is the need for journalists in the conventional media not to follow the bandwagon,” he added.
