A Don, Prof. Ezekiel Asemah, has urged journalists to be reporting the ills of human trafficking in order to curtail the menace.
The Professor of Mass communication from the Samuel Adegboyega University, Ogwa, Benin, made the call on Thursday in Kaduna at the African Conference on Development Journalism.
In his paper presentation entitled’ Setting Agenda in Under Reported Stories’, Asemah said in spite of the hardships Nigerians faced during illegal migration, many still struggled to indulge in it, resulting to loss of lives and deportation.
“The media through their influence can set agenda for the government at all levels to prioritise the fight against human trafficking,” he said.
He expressed worry that more than 180 Nigerians were trafficked in 2018 and urged the media to give urgent attention to the problem in order to change their perception that overseas were the solution to all their problems.
The don also said that issues of gender parity, child rights act,drug abuse, social innovations, agriculture and population control required more attention from the media to ensure appropriate action on them.
Prof. Umar Pate of Bayero University Kano, in his paper entitled’ The Nigerian Media and Credibility: How the media can redeem its image’, said that the media must be sensitive to their audience’s challenges and aspirations.
Pate, a professor of Mass communication, said that the media could redeem its image through promoting its professional ethics and adopting data driven journalism, saying that the media should avoid stereotypes and contextual content.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two-day conference is organised by the African Media Development Foundation (AMDF) which has headquarters in Kaduna.(NAN)
