Daily Trust Foundation Trains Women Journalists On Investigative Reporting

The Daily Trust Foundation, a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of Media Trust Group, has organized a 3-day workshop for women Journalists from the North Central Region of Nigeria.

Speaking at the workshop, held in Abuja, the nation’s capital, the Programme Director ,Trust Foundation, Theophilous Abba in a welcome address stated that the training was to motivate female Journalists to take more interest in Investigative Reporting.

“We need more Female Journalists to begin to take up the challenge of Investigative Journalism because it has been dominated by the male folks for too long. We believe women also have what it takes to compete with their counterparts in this area and that is why we decided to come up with this training to challenge our women Journalists,” he said.

The Investigation Editor of Daily Trust, Lami Sadiq in a presentation titled; “Investigative Reporting and qualities of an Investigative Journalists,” stated that Investigative Journalism is about public interest and holding the powerful accountable. She stresses that to become a good Investigative journalist entails being obsessed with facts and passion.

“As an Investigative journalist you must be insatiably curious, have extraordinary passion, be equipped with standard research and writing skills, high sense of ethics and Integrity, confidentiality and Courage. To break barriers in Investigative journalism, as women, we must believe in ourselves, grab opportunities, be competent, diligent and consistent we must also be multi skilled and proactive,” she stated.

Speaking on how Investigative Reporting is different from other forms of Reporting, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Daily Trust, Suleiman Suleiman said Independent Initiative, Evidence, time, Depth and breadth of Coverage, exposure of wrongdoing, impact on Society make up key component of Investigative Reporting.

“Investigative journalism is an in-depth reporting about public affairs that involves wrongdoing, failure or social problems brought to light by Journalists. It must have  he kind of Journalism that includes the method, level of efforts, goals and objectives, ideas,  outcomes. This encourages publicity, and openess as guarantees against corrupting influence of power,” he added

Voice of Nigeria Correspondent reports that the Foundation is engaged in capacity building for women journalists across platforms,with support from MacArthur Foundation.