The National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Alhaji Abdulwaheed Odusile, has canvassed a special media-military friendly role during security operations in the country.
Odusile, who spoke in Jaji, Kaduna State during an interactive session with Senior Course 38 students of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, said journalists and security operatives must work in harmony to forestall communication breakdown.
According to the NUJ boss, communication is an essential ingredient in any human activity, hence the need for a free flow of information to ensure proper understanding of actions and reactions.
“As the institution most likely to be involved in any form of internal security operation or low/high intensity conflict, it is good for the Nigerian Armed Forces as a body to know what role the media is expected to play in the reportage of such conflict and their own responsibility to the media towards achieving a fair reportage of the event,” he said.
The numero uno journalist in the country also advised the military to know how to relate with the media, saying that where effective communication is lacking, the tendency for conflict is high.
He said: “Making the information clear and unambiguous and on time to the reporter, on ground or in the newsroom is very essential to achieving your goal. There is no point denying the obvious. For example, it makes no sense denying there was no casualty in an explosion where corpses of the dead litter the area or where the number of the injured clearly overwhelms the medical facilities.
“You can make the best of a bad situation by coming out clean, explain how and why it happened, in spite of your best efforts, and seek the understanding of the media. If you fail to give journalists the correct and accurate information, they will get it elsewhere and it might not help your cause. Try to cultivate the reporter so as to have his ears always.”
Recalling that the military groups in the western world has adopted some journalists into their fold, Odusile reminded the army of those who were embedded among soldiers during the first Iraqi war, noting that embedded journalism gave western media first hand access to the theatre of operation during the war and afforded them the opportunity of reporting the conflict very well and bringing it vividly to the home of everybody around the world.
He however regretted that Nigeria’s attempt to embed journalists became futile when Kris Imodibe of The Guardian Newspaper and Tayo Awotusin of Champion Newspapers lost their lives while entrenched with ECOMOG soldiers during the Liberian civil war.
He further encouraged journalists covering military operations to be safety conscious, while advising the military to play a fatherly role of protecting embedded journalists.
He said: “Safety implies freedom from danger and, in the news gathering context; safety implies protection from a range of threats journalists encounter, including arrest, legal action, imprisonment, kidnapping, intimidation, bombs, landmines, being shot in the cross-fire and murder, amongst others. Journalists are exposed to more danger in violent armed conflict than in peace and stable situations.”
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