Stallion Times Train Journalists on Investigative Journalism
By Ozumi Abdul
AREWA AGENDA – Stallion Times with the support of Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) and funded by MacArthur Foundation on Saturday trained journalists from various media organizations in Kano state.
The training with the theme “Get Involved, Dialogue, and Improve (GDRIP), has the objectives of building the capacities of participants with key skills and techniques used in investigative reporting, to empower journalists on how to write good pitch for investigative reports, and to demonstrate to participants how to gather data and present evidence(s) in investigative reports.
While speaking, the Editor-in-Chief of Stallion Time, Isiyaku Ahmed,who also doubles as the coordinator of Get Involved, Dialogue, and Improve (GDRIP), stated that the project is a three year old project targeted at promoting good governance and accountability.
He said that the purpose of the training was to train journalists on investigative journalism, while also lamenting its declining nature, particularly in the north.
Isiyaku observed that journalists in the region are now more inclined to doing event and press release stories, rather than in depth stories and investigative reports.
“The purpose of this training we had today, which is investigative journalism is because we have noticed that over the years Investigative journalism in the north is fast declining.
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“People do not do investigative reporting or in depth stories. So we are doing this training to give participants the required skills, strategies and understanding they need to be successful as investigative journalists,such as how to write investigative stories, how to present their data and air-tight investigative reports”.
He added that journalists are also taught how to write good pitches that they can use to access grants,and as well to get supports from organizations.
On the feedback from the participants in the past one year since the project is a three year old one, the Stallion Times supremo said in the past one year the organization has had a considerable number of investigative stories that were written by journalists in Kano, adding that his organization is also looking to do more this year.
On his part, one of the lead facilitators during the workshop, Idris Muhammad said his aim was to enrich journalists with the skills required to excel in investigative journalism.
He rued that he noticed that journalists are no longer interested in unraveling stories that are not popular in the public domain, which he attributed to their lack of skills in research and investigation.
He said that these obvious deficiencies among journalists imperatively calls for rigorous investigative journalism training,as well as data-driven journalism.
He commanded Stallion Times for giving the participants the avenue to learn the skill of investigative journalism as well as supporting them with grants in carrying investigative projects.
